UK Steam users must verify age to access mature content
Valve has rolled out a new age assurance policy to comply with the UK Online Safety Act.
Valve is requiring Steam users based in the UK to verify their age using a credit card in order to access "mature content."
The company said its new age assurance policy is designed to comply with the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), which is billed by the UK government as a new set of laws that will protect both children and adults online by pushing social media platforms and other internet businesses to take more responsibility for their users' safety.
The OSA has resulted in some online platforms such as Reddit and Bluesky locking certain features behind age verification checks that require selfies, but Valve said it has chosen to rely on credit card checks to preserve the "maximum degree of user privacy."
"The data processed in the verification process is identical to that of the millions of other Steam users who make purchases or store their payment details for convenience. The verification process therefore provides no information about a user's content preferences to payment providers or other third parties," wrote Valve in a blog post.
"Valve handles the verification process using its own internal payment processing system, which is independently certified under the PCI-DSS standard."
Valve claims its new age assurance policy is "highly effective"
The company explained that UK users who do not verify their age will be unable to access Steam store pages for "mature content games" or their associated community hubs.
"You need to be logged into an active user account and explicitly opt-in through the account settings page [to access that content]," added Valve. "For UK users, this opt-in process requires age verification. Your UK Steam user account is considered age verified for as long as a valid credit card is stored on the account."
Valve noted that Ofcom—the UK's independent regulator for online safety—has positioned credit card checks as one "highly effective age assurance measure." That's because UK residents must be at least 18 years of age obtain a credit card.
"Having the credit card stored as a payment method acts as an additional deterrent against circumventing age verification by sharing a single Steam user account among multiple person," Valve continued.
Valve has instructed customers who encounter issues when attempting to register their credit card on Steam to contact their local bank for assistance before filing a Steam Support ticket. "Our data minimal approach means that we typically do not have insight into reasons why a given credit card use fails," the company added.