Steam Finally Lets Old Aussie Accounts Into R18+ Games Without a Credit Card. New Ones Are Still Stuffed

Two months after Valve locked a heap of Australian adults out of R18+ games on Steam unless they handed over a credit card, it’s finally added a way in that doesn’t involve a trip to the bank. If your Steam account is at least nine years old, Steam now counts you as a grown-up.

The change is on Valve’s Age Assurance in Australia support page, which now lists automatic verification as option one. It’s a decent fix for long-time players, and useless for anyone who signed up after 2017.

What’s changed

• Automatic verification: Valve says Steam “will automatically consider your account age verified if it is at least nine years old and has had a consistent email address or billing information.”
• Credit card still works: you can still verify by adding a credit card to your account. You don’t have to buy anything with it.
• Debit cards still don’t: Valve says a debit card “is insufficient for age verification purposes” under the Australian codes.
• More options, maybe: Valve says it’s looking into other methods that comply with the rules while limiting the data it collects and stores. No timeline.
• Your library is safe: Valve says you can keep playing any game you’ve already bought. The check covers R18+ store and community pages.
• Once only: Valve says each account only needs to be verified once.

How we got here

Australia’s Age-Restricted Material Codes, written under the Online Safety Act, started requiring app stores to age-check access to R18+ games from 9 September. Valve’s answer was a credit card and nothing else, according to GamingOnLinux, which also reported the card had to stay on your account or you’d drop back to an unverified account.

That locked out a lot of adults, because plenty of Aussies run debit only. The eSafety Commissioner told Nine.com.au in September that a single credit-card option was “unlikely to meet the ‘fairness’ requirement” in the code, and that it was seeking commitments from Valve to add more choice.

• Other stores do more: eSafety told Nine that Microsoft lets buyers verify with email, facial age estimation, an ID scan or a credit card, and that Sony, Apple and Google also offer a range of options.
• The law doesn’t demand a card: eSafety’s guidance lists photo ID, facial age estimation, digital ID, credit card checks and more, and leaves the choice to platforms, Kropp Gaming reports.
• Valve skipped the drafting: eSafety told Nine that Valve didn’t take part in writing the codes, unlike Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the IGEA.
• eSafety’s still watching: its 2 October report on Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite and Steam said it was still pushing Valve for more age assurance options.

Who’s still stuck

• Newer accounts: anything under nine years old still needs a credit card, at least until Valve adds something else.
• Account hoppers: Valve’s wording needs a “consistent” email or billing details. It hasn’t said exactly what breaks that, so if you’ve changed your email a few times, check your store settings.
• New PC players: SIFTER points out that anyone making a fresh account right now is still stuck with the card-only option.

Kiwis can relax. Valve’s support page is marked for Australian users only, so this mess doesn’t touch NZ Steam accounts. For the record, R18+ in Australia is an age rating, not a ban, as we covered in our GTA 6 rating story.

More on Valve: modders recently got the Steam Frame’s SteamOS running on Macs, and everything else is on our Steam page.

Our take

Good. It’s about bloody time. Telling someone with a 20-year-old Steam account full of Half-Life receipts to prove they’re not 12 was always ridiculous, and it took Valve two months to work out that old accounts are a pretty strong hint.

But let’s not throw Valve a parade. Every other big store worked out ID scans, email checks and face estimation before the deadline, and Valve picked the one method that quietly excluded debit-only adults. It’s the same mob Tim Sweeney reckons held gaming back, and on this one, he’d have a point.

The real test is option three. If Valve’s promised extra methods actually land, new and younger adult players get let in too. If they don’t, eSafety will be back knocking, and fair enough.

Did your old account get waved through, or are you still locked out? Tell us in the GetRekt Discord.

Sources

• Steam Support: Age Assurance in Australia
• SIFTER: This PlayStation practice has been dubbed as ‘Shonky’ by Choice (includes the Steam change)
• Nine.com.au: Aussie adult gamers blocked from 18+ content over Steam age checks
• GamingOnLinux: Age verification for Steam rolls out in Australia requiring a credit card
• Bitdefender: Steam now requires a credit card for R18+ games in Australia
• Kropp Gaming: Australians are being asked for a credit card to see adult pages on Steam
• eSafety Commissioner: Gaming giants urged to level-up child safety measures
• Steam: Cyberpunk 2077 (Australian R18+ rating)