Steam users in the UK will need a credit card to access “mature content” games

https://www.theverge.com/news/767980/steam-uk-age-vertification-online-safety-act-credit-card-mature-games

by Skavau

48 comments

  1. People do not want to store their credit card details online

    Is this just pure credit cards? If so lots of people dont have them nor want them..

    This is a crazy idea and will be end of me using steam

  2. The article seems to imply this requires *specifically* credit cards, i.e. debit cards and cash cards are excluded.

    This has to be wrong surely? Debit cards are vastly more common in the UK than credit cards.

  3. Yeah, I went this long without a Credit Card. Steam ain’t changing that.

  4. “Hey dad, can I use your credit card to buy a game?”

    “Sure son”

    Wow. So secure.

    And by “Mature” do they mean porn games? Or anything mature such as GTA?

    I fucking hate this age of verification… and I hope it gets repealed quickly.

  5. My steam account is like 14 years old. In 4 years it’ll be old enough to apply for one itseld

  6. Age verification without a credit card is entirely possible. Retailers who sell age restricted products use these services all the time, they presumably draw upon credit records, public electoral roll and other – presumably proprietary -databases to work.

  7. I am 34 and I’ve never had a credit card. I don’t plan on getting one either.

    My steam account is almost 19 years old. How is that not good enough proof that I’m over 18?

  8. Credit cards are a better option in one sense, at least no direct photo or ID photo.

    On the other hand, not everyone has credit cards. What about adults with bad credit? Just because they did a mistake in their past and can’t have credit cards they are punished by not having access to mature games? Seems excessive and unfair.

  9. I’m starting to believe the theory that religious groups are secretly funding puritan tyrannism because I have never seen society become so anti-NSFW/sex so quickly and so harshly like in the past few years. Who is this protecting?

  10. My steam account is old enough to legally drink in the US. Does that count?

  11. Obligatory statement. The government can go f-ck themselves. 

  12. People will just pirate games instead. I don’t have a credit card and have no need for one.

  13. What the actual fck are the UK government doing?

    Jesus christ.

  14. I don’t know how debit cards work across the pond, but my understanding was that in the UK at least, a debit card issued to an over 18/adult has age verify via the bank itself, so it seems daft that they aren’t on the list

  15. There is nothing inherently wrong with age restrictions. The two main problems as I see it are, first that there is no way to prove your age that doesn’t expose you to serious privacy and/or security hazards. Giving Steam your CC is probably no worse than giving it to any other company, but every extra place it is stored increases the risk. And if it becomes a general thing that youi have to use your CC as proof of age everywhere, then people will end up giving their card details to some very shady sites.

    There are technical solutions, ways that you can prove certain things about yourself without actually identifying yourself. But our clueless government doesn’t even see the problem, so they aren’t thinking about the solution at all.

    The second thing is that we need different age limits for different things. At the moment we treat 17 year olds exactly the same as infants, with the same restrictions as a 4 year old. Then on their 18th birthday suddenly they get access to everything.

    It is ridiculous that teenagers aren’t even allowed to see discussion of eating disorders, for example. They might have friends or family who are affected, and they need to know more about it.

    But that would require them to actually think about the law, rather than just creating something that sounds good in a headline.

  16. I’m not sure what’s worse or more divisive: forcing users to store a credit card (which inherently has an age restriction), or requiring a selfie/ID. Either way, there’ll be people who don’t want to do either or would be happy with one and not the other.

    Personally I already store my credit card details on Steam. Rather that than my bank card since CCs generally have better protections (most of my online purchases are done with a CC).

  17. So I only need a credit card to access this ? I could still just pay with a debit card anyway once a credit card is assigned ?

  18. Is “Mature Content” anything that currently asks for your date of birth? Because that’s games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, not just the porn games.

  19. My steam account is 19 years old. That’ll be fun.

    Yesterday Microsoft did this to me for the Xbox. My associated email address is older than the Xbox.. I had to provide nothing 🤣

  20. Sorry… what? I’m 21, but I don’t have a credit card? When they say mature content do they mean any game that is rated 18?

  21. But I’m a 34 year old man who doesn’t have a credit card, surely a debit card is fine?

  22. I lack a credit card so my business with Steam may have just ended. I didn’t really buy anything from Steam anymore but still

  23. I have a credit card, but I use it to back my PayPal account that I then use to make Steam and other online purchases.

    One of, if not the, advantage of PP is that the merchant never gets direct access to my bank details and so I’m not exposed to every retailer on the internet. The added protection of PP will be of no value if I have to hand over my credit card details directly.

  24. My Steam Account is over 18 years old. Is that not enough?!?!?!

  25. Several UK content creators I watch have had videos banned in the UK due to the “Online Safety Act”

    The UK is truly and thoroughly cooked

  26. Does this effect games already in your library? im 44 years old and do not want to have to go apply for a credit card just to play stuff I own. Steam with all their money and resources could have found a better way rather than punishing the customers. They took the lazy way.

  27. I will start to pirate games before I submit ID or age verification for video games. It is the duty of parents to control their children’s access to the internet and technology.

  28. Oooh we are having a steam age battle. 21 years of service checking in.

  29. My Steam account is 21 years old lol. Does that count?

  30. It seems to only be for gooner type games. Cyberpunk, RDR2, GTAV, Postal 2, Dark Souls (all of them), RES, Dead Space (1-3), L.A. Noire… Etc..

    All have some form of nudity and or Extreme gore / violence. All do not require this verfication to view…

    I’m against the OSA cos it’s fucking stupid on so many levels but like what’s the justification for those extremely violent titles with some incredibly heavy topics and visuals being okay… But the gooner games are too much and the kiddies can’t be seeing that. Like what??

  31. so people will now purchase games from outside of the country… there goes the tax revenue. lol.

  32. I have never had a credit card. However, I would rather this than submitting my ID. The lesser evil of a bad situation

  33. Hilarious that steam never decided to just show the age requirement on store games and are instead doing this, while still not showing the age requirement of games on the store front.

  34. Our politicians are so weirdly authoritarian when it comes to tech.. I used to think it was due to strong lobbying from the likes of Sony and other media companies, but it’s more pervasive than that. I don’t understand it. This whole thing is so dystopian.

  35. My steam account is over 21 years old. Doesn’t that prove anything?

  36. Don’t like it but honestly it really is the best method of verification. No different than saving a debit card in terms of personal info so go valve for coming up with a semi decent work around.

    That said however I would not do this on any other site that I don’t already use a debit card on.

  38. If this hinders me in anyway I’ll just buy from 3rd party sites and add to Steam. Not Steam’s fault for having to implement this, but I’m not going out of my way to comply with this privacy nightmare of a law.

  39. If this includes games like Cyberpunk and not just sex games then no more buying such things on Steam for me then I guess.

  40. genuinely insane debit cards aren’t accepted, the Banks themselves can verify the user is over 18 with one.

    jesus wept

  41. What, so i cant access games i spent money on? This has to be illegal, surely.

  42. VPN usage and piracy must have /will be sky rocketing,it’s 1984 becoming reality 

  43. I solely have debit cards, no credit cards under my name.

    Force me to use a credit card? I simply won’t use your services.

    PC gaming has gone shit and I’ve got a Ryzen 5 laptop.

    Looks like Dawn of War and old classic games for me!

  44. I’ve just done a quick check and it only asked for a credit card to view the pages of 2 porn games that are on the new and trending section. I tried searching for GTAV, Borderlands 4 and Cyberpunk and it only asked once for an age check which was just the one where you enter a date of birth. No card needed.
    If it stays for just porn games then I don’t see much of an issue. But if the scope creeps to cover all 18+ games then that becomes a much bigger problem.
    The OSA is such a stupid fucking law. Nobody in government knows a fucking thing about technology.

  45. debit cards work people, ive just tried it myself, seems the Banks have a over 18 debit card that registers the same as a CC on these methods.

  46. Rip then, I’m 35 no intention of ever having a credit card, I buy what I can afford simple as that

  47. So I have a credit card (because it’s a useful tool if used properly), but it’s an Amex, and Steam doesn’t seem to accept Amex. What now?

  48. Seems bullshit. My account is 20 years old.

    Anyway, I read this thread about 30 minutes ago, everything worked as normal except I couldn’t look at the community hub of a game i didn’t own. (adult I mean)

    I added one to cart, didn’t purchase but it seemed all fine.

    Decided to try a free one, worked, loaded it on Steam deck, worked. Played 10 minutes.

    Went back, the page was unavailable, backed out, tried a normal game, page worked. Tried a different adult game, got a page unavailable.

    tried 5 minutes later, now it takes me to a page to add a credit card.

    That pisses me off, I don’t have one, never thought the need, my debit has always been fine (which, has been on my 20 year old account for around 3 years…which is the same number as the previous 2 or 3 anyway)

    Looks like it’s still rolling out because I had no issues whilst others did and now I have.

    Edit – I remember one I had from a couple years ago, I can’t even view the page of a game I own.

Comments are closed.