Steam is the latest to ask UK users to verify their age to access mature content.
One half of team overkill lives in the UK. Hi. It's me. As such, I've had to jump through various digital hoops in recent weeks if I wanted to continue enjoying all that the internet truly has to offer. đź‘€
This is all as a result of the likely well-intentioned but horribly implemented Online Safety Act — cooked up by the awful previous Tory government and waved through by the current, humdrum Labour administration.
In effect, what started as a way to protect the kids from porn and online harms has resulted in widespread age-gating of large swathes of the web and various content to boot — including the obvious, such as the big porn sites and dating apps, but also oddities like Spotify (no naughty music for you), Bluesky (I had to verify in order to send DMs), and other platforms such as Discord.
Oh, and that previous government whose idea this all was? One of their members was caught watching... tractor porn at work.
Most if not all of these new restrictions can be easily bypassed via a VPN, so any under 18 that's determined enough will find a way around these blocks. Turns out, plenty are determined, with VPN demand soaring here in the UK. So, only a matter of time before they're blocked too right?
Anyway, Steam has joined the likes of Xbox in announcing that they too will be putting up some sort of barrier to entry. Thankfully the Steam approach is a tad gentler than some of the others, only requiring you to confirm via a credit card in order to access anything deemed as mature content.
Here's Tom Warren for The Verge:
Valve has started to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act, by rolling out a requirement for all Brits to verify their age with a credit card to access “mature content” pages and games on Steam. UK users won’t even be able to access the community hubs of mature content games unless a valid credit card is stored on a Steam account.
As annoying as this all is for consumers, for the platform holders it's simply the new cost of business. However, when taken alongside the recent censorship fights from Mastercard and Visa too it paints an increasingly grim picture for those selling games. It's one where game makers are beholden to platforms, payment providers, and now nation states too.
Andrew Wailes
Ed Nightingale
Any attempt at control of expression and storytelling is a loss for us all. Most of just want to play games — instead we're having to verify our identity on every site, app, and platform. This is all meant to be about safety, but right now it just feels like bureaucratic busy work dressed up as morality.
