Steam users in UK now required to prove age to access mature game pages

PC gamers who access Steam in the UK will soon have to verify their age in order to even see mature games on the storefront.

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The UK is ready to start enforcing The Online Safety Act, forcing new strict guidelines on service providers. Valve has announced some changes to how users in the United Kingdom will be able to access Steam, confirming that age verification will now be required to access certain games on the platform.

So, what counts as a mature game on Steam? There are currently over 6,300 games tagged as mature on Steam, and while there are adult-themed games in the mix, there's also big titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V included. This will effectively gate off access to some of the biggest AAA games to minors, who, under the auspices of the age rating systems, aren't technically supposed to be playing these games anyway.

There's an easy way to prove your age on Steam, though: Simply hook up a credit card as a payment method. If you're able to do that, you're automatically seen as an adult and your age is verified.

Check below for more info from Valve, and we did also learn something interesting: Valve has its own internal payment processing system that is independently certified.

In order to access Steam store pages for mature content games as well as their associated community hubs, you need to be logged into an active user account and explicitly opt-in through the account settings page.

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.

Why we use this process

In the UK, Ofcom is the independent regulator for online safety. Ofcom's guidance on the OSA states that one highly effective age assurance measure is credit card checks. This is because, in the UK, an individual must be at least 18 years of age to obtain a credit card, therefore credit card issuers are obliged to verify the age of an applicant before providing them with a credit card.

Having the credit card stored as a payment method acts as an additional agent against circumventing age verification by sharing a single Steam user account among multiple persons.