Earlier this week Steam joined Xbox and PlayStation in forcing Australians to verify their age before purchasing adults-only games, and like so many other age verification processes this has been implemented about as shoddily as you can expect from companies like this.
Not only are there concerns over privacy and data security, but there's also the question of verification's effectiveness; some platforms’ allowance of facial ID scans, for example, has allowed users of any age to gain access by pretending to be...Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu.
In Steam's particular case, though, that won't be a problem, because unlike Xbox and PlayStation--which give users a choice of methods, including uploading (yikes) a form of government ID--Valve is currently only allowing a single form of age verification: linking a credit card to your Steam account.
Anyone trying to access an R18+ shopfront listing who doesn't have a credit card already linked to their account is being shown the message:
Valve is required by the Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code to verify that you are 18 or older before accessing mature content. If you wish to do so, please add a valid Australian credit card to your account and afterwards update the Mature Content Preferences.
I see the logic here in terms of taking a shortcut on administrative work; you have to be 18 to get a credit card, and you would have needed multiple types of government ID to get one from your bank. The problem, of course, is that not everyone has a credit card. And those who are adults and don't currently have one aren't going to suddenly go out and make a major financial decision just so they can play some R18+ games on Steam. Which is fine, you shouldn't need to go out and sign up for a credit card just to prove you're an adult on a video game shopfront!
Making matters even more confusing is that while Valve's note specifies that users need a credit card, Australians are reporting that some debit cards--particularly those from the country's four largest banks--are working while others aren't.
Recent statistics report that there are currently 14.7 million credit cards registered in Australia, which has a total population of around 28 million people. When you consider that around 22 million of those are adults, that's a lot of Australians without credit cards! A big enough number to make you wonder why Valve, for all the other options' flaws, didn't at least just copy what other platforms have done.
Then again, half-arsing things when it comes to Australia is nothing new for Steam!
