The UK's Nanny State Comes to Steam: Age Verification Is Now Mandatory
If you're a gamer in the UK, get your credit card ready. Big Brother Valve now needs to see some ID before you can buy that M-rated game.
In a move that will surprise absolutely no one who's been watching the regulatory creep across the internet, Valve has officially flicked the switch on mandatory age verification for all Steam users in the United Kingdom. As of this Friday, if you want to access any mature-rated content, you'll need to have a valid credit card linked to your account. And don’t think this is some spontaneous decision from Valve to become your digital parent; it's their direct, and likely reluctant, response to the UK's far-reaching Online Safety Act, a new law forcing online platforms to get serious about keeping kids away from the naughty stuff(Or at least that’s their Orwellian excuse).
The Least-Worst Option
Faced with a government mandate, Valve had a few dystopian options on the table, including invasive methods like face scans or demanding a photo of your ID. Mercifully, they opted for what is probably the least-worst solution: credit card verification. In their official documentation, the company claims this method "preserves the maximum degree of user privacy," and for once, the corporate speak actually holds up. (Good guy valve strikes once again)
The logic is surprisingly clever. UK banking regulations already prohibit anyone under 18 from getting a credit card. By requiring one, Valve effectively outsources the messy business of age verification to the banks. They don't have to build a massive, inevitably-going-to-be-hacked database of user IDs; they just have to check if you're trusted with a line of credit. It's a clean, if annoying, way to comply with the law.
A Familiar Fight Against Financial Overlords
This move, while legally mandated, feels like another step in a worrying trend where payment processors are becoming the de facto content police for the internet. This isn't the first time we've seen financial institutions meddling with what's available on Steam. Just last month, we saw a similar battle flare up when
Steam users had to take the fight to Visa after a sudden purge of adult games from the platform. Whether it's a direct government law or indirect pressure from a payment processor, the result is the same: more hurdles and more corporate oversight of your digital life.
The UK's Digital Curfew
Steam isn't alone in this. The Online Safety Act is forcing the entire industry to build taller digital walls. Other platforms like Discord and Reddit have already fumbled with their own age verification systems, which have proven to be laughably easy to bypass. Meanwhile, Microsoft is already rolling out its own optional age checks for Xbox, with the writing on the wall that they'll become mandatory by early 2026 as the law's grip tightens.
The wild, unregulated days of the internet are officially over, at least in the UK. Steam's credit-card-based system is a significant precedent, and you can bet that other gaming companies will be watching closely, ready to copy the model as similar laws inevitably pop up in other countries. For now, UK gamers get to be the guinea pigs in this new era of digital nannying. Welcome to the future, I guess.