Steam has introduced age verification for UK users, with mature pages on the storefront now requiring valid credit card details showing that you're 18 or over to access.
As revealed in a new FAQ, Steam's new UK age verification process has been introduced in order to comply with the country's new Online Safety Act, which has also affected other gaming-related websites like Nexus Mods, as well as various key sellers.
In order to access mature content on Steam, you'll now need to provide valid credit card information, and your account will be "considered age verified" for as long as that information is stored. If you delete it, you'll need to add another one in order to access mature pages again.
If you haven't added a card to your Steam account yet, you can do so via the Account Details page's "add a payment method to this account" option. The process is fairly straightforward; once you've been through it, you can change your store preferences to allow mature content.
Valve says it's using this particular method of verification because it "preserves the maximum degree of user privacy"; the data processed through verification is "identical to that of the millions of other Steam users who make purchases", according to Valve.
If you're concerned about not owning a credit card, I was able to add a valid debit card in order to verify my age, but it's possible that this isn't an intended verification method; in its own FAQ, Valve says individuals must be 18 to obtain a credit card, but in the UK, debit cards can be used by those as young as 16.
If Steam does indeed require users to specifically add a credit card to verify their age, that feels like an unfortunate oversight for the roughly 36% of UK adults who don't have credit cards (myself included).
It looks like pages for games with mature content, like recent release Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, aren't affected; this age verification system appears only to apply specifically to adult content on Steam. That may change in the future, however.
It's also worth noting that this new system only applies to UK users; if you're in the US, or anywhere else that doesn't have a similar law to the Online Safety Act, then you can continue using Steam just as you have been.
The Online Safety Act is likely to mean that more and more gaming-related sites and platforms incorporate age verification for UK users, so if you're based in the UK, you can expect this kind of thing to become more common as time goes by. Stay tuned for more.
