Valve has received the rare reprimand for being anti-consumer by the Australian government.
Three weeks ago, we reported on Steam trying to comply with Australia’s online safety act in the worst way. You can only verify your age by registering a credit card.
This isn’t a good choice because few Australians have credit cards nowadays. Of course, on top of that, other companies like PlayStation and XBOX offer other options like face scans.
But today, the Australian government itself has criticized Valve for this move. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the agency applying their online safety act, shared this statement:
Steam providing a single form of age assurance, namely credit cards, which many Australians may not have access to, is unlikely to meet the ‘fairness’ requirement contained in these terms.
The eSafety Commissioner is not punishing Valve, but they say they are engaging with the company and seeking commitments for more age verification options.
Ironically, eSafety cites Microsoft offering a large range of age verification options, including email, face scan, and official document scan, as being more pro-consumer than Valve. But that highlights how badly Valve has dealt with this.
