Steam's Australian age check locks out anyone without a credit card

Valve now requires an Australian credit card, not a debit card, to unlock R18+ games on Steam, echoing a rollout that already frustrated UK users.

AI-drafted from 5 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

Valve has switched on age verification for R18+ content on Steam in Australia, and the method it has chosen requires a credit card. Debit cards, PayPal and identity documents do not count. If you cannot produce one, you cannot even see the store page for a mature-rated game.

The change follows Australia's Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code, which forces platforms to confirm a user is over 18 before showing them adult content. According to Game Developer, the wider set of online safety rules that this sits under came into effect back in March, following measures introduced the year before that banned under-16s from several social media platforms. PlayStation, Xbox and Epic have all rolled out their own compliance systems recently, and Game Developer describes those rollouts as smooth in comparison, generally letting users verify through account age or a facial scan, which makes Valve's approach the outlier.

Steam users trying to view a page such as Doom Eternal are met with a blunt message, reproduced by both GamingOnLinux and Press Start: “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.” There is no option to verify any other way.

Why a credit card, and not a debit card

Credit cards imply a line of credit issued by a bank, which in theory ties a real, adult, financially vetted identity to the account. Debit cards draw straight from money you already have and, according to a Reddit thread quoted by Game Developer, “aren't as common in Australia as they are in the US, and plenty of adults here just use debit cards.” The same thread argues that people “shouldn't have to apply for credit just to look at a game on Steam.”

Valve has form here. GamingOnLinux notes that when the company rolled out an equivalent system in the UK, it justified the credit-card-only approach by saying it “preserves the maximum degree of user privacy”, avoiding the ID uploads or face scans used elsewhere. That rationale has not stopped it running into the same complaint twice: plenty of adults, in both countries, simply do not hold a credit card, whether by circumstance, preference or a poor credit history.

The bug that undermines the rule

Oddly, the restriction is not being enforced consistently. GamingOnLinux and Game Developer both report users finding that a debit card gets accepted anyway, which one commenter called something that “kind of defeats the purpose.” GamingOnLinux's editor says this happened during the UK rollout too and appears to have resurfaced in Australia, suggesting a bug in Valve's verification checks rather than a deliberate loophole. Other users on the GamingOnLinux thread report that having no payment method on file at all, and instead paying via PayPal, leaves the mature content warning showing but does not actually block access.

What it means for players and small developers

For players, the immediate effect is that browsing or buying an R18+ game on Steam in Australia now depends on a form of payment many adults do not have and may not want, given, as one GamingOnLinux commenter puts it, a credit card can mean paying “enormous fees for the negative balance” if things go wrong. For independent developers whose games carry an R18+ rating, an inconsistently enforced barrier in front of their storefront is not good news either way: it either blocks legitimate buyers or, if the debit card bug persists, achieves nothing at all while still frightening off customers who see the warning.

Both Press Start and Game Developer say they have contacted Valve for comment; neither had a response at the time of writing. Whether Valve intends to add other verification methods, as it has hinted it might in the UK, or fix the debit card bug, is unconfirmed.

Sources

Image: Press Start