Just save our birthdate and stop asking our age every time!

[yphastos]

Every time I want to see details of some M rated games, despite being logged in, I get a page asking for my birth date, for "verification" purposes. But why you don't just save that information for users with a steam account, and simply stop asking for our age every time!
It is understandable to ask age for unlogged users visiting the site, but WHY do you need to ask every time for logged in users? Why don't you store such information? what is wrong with storing it?

[EXE]

I asked this question before, but I don't remember what the reason was. I think it's a legal issue that Valve has to comply with.

[Kenny32673]

It does save it, at least for me it does. It still asks you but your last input date should still be automatically set so you only need to click a button.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Originally posted by MonkeySeeker:

It does save it, at least for me it does. It still asks you but your last input date should still be automatically set so you only need to click a button.

This. After all, I was born on January, 1st 1900 every time I access an M rated store page.

[yphastos]

Originally posted by MonkeySeeker:

It does save it, at least for me it does. It still asks you but your last input date should still be automatically set so you only need to click a button.

well, yes it saves the date (i guess in a cookie or something), but why if it DOES know it already, why do we have to click anyway. It should be automatic and jump directly to the game if we are logged in.
@TinyTim: yes, i thought about legal issues, but I'd like to know more details. Other online services simply ask you to be over certain age to use them (e.g. i think facebook asks to be at least 13 y.o.), so why steam doesn't do that to?
Or perhaps not saving the birthdate as a whole, but just something like "are you over 18" yes/no option, and save that. We are responsible anyway if watching M games despite our age. Lying in the verification page would be the same as lying in our profile "valid age" check anyway, we would be responsible, not them.

[REL]

Browsing Steam via FireFox or Steam client still always prompts me for age even when I'm logged in. Very annoying! Is there some way to circumvent this?!

[Tito Shivan]

As mentioned, the client does save the age. And whether it's saved or not, they won't disable the step of having to click and accept before entering the game page. It's a feature to remove any responsibility from Valve in case anyone not meant to visits the page (hence lying about their age)
It's a way to avoid stupid lawsuits.

[Tito Shivan]

Yes it is. That's why it's always asking, so no one gets into without 'certifiying' they are of legal age to view the materials on the page.

[REL]

They need to offer some sort of checkbox like this to Steam accounts.

[x] I certify that no minors will have access to my Steam account.

Couldn't some tactic like this avoid any potential stupid legal issues?

[76561198083106736]

"I hereby certify that this is my date of birth and Steam may use it to grant me access to content publishers' age-restricted material when the age requirement is met.", would suffice for me. Yes, BioShock Infinite, infinitely nagged me into thinking about this.

[Tito Shivan]

Found the bit of 'law' regarding the dreaded age gate.
All stores compliant with the ESRB follow the same code of conduct:
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/downloads/ewc_code.pdf

Each EWC member agrees to:

2.2 If the audio-visual content contains material from a Mature-rated or Adults
Only-rated game (or one that is anticipated to receive either rating), display
an ESRB-compliant age-gate prior to access or purchase.

2.3 Utilize an age-neutral approach (e.g., “Please enter your date of birth.”),
when requesting the manual entry of a birth date from a visitor trying to
access age-gated audio-visual content;

2.4 Employ reasonable measures (e.g., dropping a session cookie; returning
visitor to the home page) to prevent visitors under the age of 17 (or 18) from
re-entering a different birth date once they have initially been denied access
to age-gated audio-visual content and utilize an age-neutral approach in the
error message (e.g., “Sorry, you may not access this content.”);

So no, setting a system to bypass the age-check would void the ESRB code.

Originally posted by TheBDK:

Just wait until they start enforcing the utterly pointless "We use cookies!!!!!" popups. Then you're really gonna lose your mind if this bothers you lol.

Oh, i love those... ;)

[REL]

Nice find Tito! Sounds like an annoying US regulation. In theory, what if I told Steam I'm a Canadian resident? Sounds like this could be a loop hole for those who want to get around this annoying issue. Hell, due to the digital nature of Steam, they should just relocate to another country who doesn't impose annoying regulations like this. Perhaps somewhere with the lowest tax rates while they're at it!

[Tito Shivan]

It's a pretty widespread practice, it happens under different denominations on different areas.
On Europe whe have the PEGI, CERO for japan, USK in Germany (Where the have to bear with censored version of some games)... So going elsewhere won't get you rid of it, you'd only find a different flavor.
And the ESRB was partly founded by Canada Too... So you wouldn't run too far from it ;)

[REL]

What about Mexico? I was referring to migrated towards some offshore country with no regulations and low taxes. :P

[Sten]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

As mentioned, the client does save the age. And whether it's saved or not, they won't disable the step of having to click and accept before entering the game page. It's a feature to remove any responsibility from Valve in case anyone not meant to visits the page (hence lying about their age)
It's a way to avoid stupid lawsuits.

You are damn right. That's why you can bypass this system so easily - No responsibility without the risk of losing potential (future... haha) consumers.

[Zefar]

It is a silly rule but when adult sites use it as well it kinda shows that it's there for a reason.

I wonder if the people who made the rule think it does something. They should try to make a test with it and see how effective it is.