Valve has introduced age verification for R18+ games on Steam in Australia, following similar moves already made by PlayStation and Xbox. The change is tied to legal requirements under Australia's Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code, with penalties for non-compliance reportedly reaching up to AU$50 million.
While PlayStation and Xbox offer multiple ways for users to verify they are adults, Valve currently supports only one method: linking a valid Australian credit card to the account. Debit cards do not work for this purpose, even though Australians must be 18 to legally hold a debit card as well.
This creates complications for some adult users. According to PC Gamer, a person may be 18 or older but still not qualify for a credit card due to insufficient income, not meeting a bank's credit assessment criteria (as is the case with CommBank), having a poor credit history, or simply choosing not to have one at all. For Australians who fall into these categories, Steam will not currently allow access to R18+ games — it isn't even possible to view an R18+ game's store page. Attempting to do so, for example with Doom 2016, returns a message stating that Valve requires verification of age 18 or older per the Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code, instructing users to add a valid Australian credit card and update their Mature Content Preferences.
PC Gamer notes that this restriction is not entirely absolute: it remains possible to purchase Steam keys for R18+ games through third-party sellers such as Fanatical and Green Man Gaming and redeem them on Steam afterward, bypassing the credit card requirement. However, this is described as an imperfect workaround rather than a full solution, and the piece points out that alternative age-verification approaches — such as third-party identity verification services like Persona — have raised their own privacy and information security concerns.
PC Gamer says it has contacted Valve to ask whether the company plans to introduce additional age verification methods for Australian users, and if so, on what timeline. As of the report, Valve had not provided further details on expanding verification options beyond the credit card requirement.