Steam now requires Australian users to verify their age with a credit card

Steam now requires Australian users to verify their age with a credit card(reddit.com)

9 points by haunter 3 days ago | 3 comments

kotaKat 3 days ago |

Anyone else remember Nintendo's absurdly explained 50 cent fee to create a child Nintendo Account?

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/...

"Verifiable Parental Consent (VPC) is a process required by law in certain countries, which ensures a parent or guardian has approved the creation of a child's account to use Nintendo's services. The most common method of VPC is to charge a minimal amount on the adult's credit card. The age for which this process is required varies depending on where the child lives."

sevenseacat 3 days ago |

That's hilarious to think that you can have an account that's over 18 years old, but still be age restricted unless you have a credit card.

You don't even have to be 18 to have a credit card, you can get them as an additional cardholder at 16. So what is this even for?

Sometimes we can be so backwards...

optionalsquid 3 days ago | |

While a Steam account is supposed to be personal and non-transferable, it obviously isn't so in practice. So unless you provide additional information to prove that the owner is still the same person, then it is probably not sufficient to prove the current owner's age.

Looking at the "marketplace" G2A, about 15% of the Steam games sold there are sold in the form of accounts: Instead of a key or a gift, you get a login and a password for an account owning the game being sold. Making the account age a form of identification would no doubt also create a market for aged accounts without games.