Why are steam allowing kids to buy in appropriate aged games

[Rebel Vader]

Time and time again I see kids playing games that they are not by law in certain countries allowed to play

My friends nephew for example who is 15 is playing GTA5 and has recently brought Metal Gear solid 5 both of which are rated as PEGI 18

Shouldnt steam have some sort of check in place to make sure underage people cant play certain games ... for example driving licence number or something held on file you cant get til your 18 because the stupid asking your birthday doesnt work ... people lie

[HLCinSC]

It's on the parents. They can set parental controls on both Steam and their computer.

[Perrywinkle]

Because their parents dont exist anymore,how is that diferent to boy a ticket for inapropiate movie?also it the parents give permit to use their credit card then are acepting the purchases of their sons.
The easy way is trowing the resposibility to something else ans blame it.

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

In some countries those games are only rated Mature Adult 15+.

It would be impossible to enforce.

Steam should ask your birthdate upon installation but ppl would just lie.

[pirates-AP-]

How in the world is steam supposed to know, who is ordering a game?? If parents do not care for their kids, there is nothing Steam can do about it.
Makes me kinda sad, that people do nothing to raise their kids in a good manner but on the other end expect an online service to do their job.

Sorry for poor english

[76561198001062896]

Theres already an age checkbox, may I add

[76561198001062896]

Originally posted by Rebel Vader:

Time and time again I see kids playing games that they are not by law in certain countries allowed to play

My friends nephew for example who is 15 is playing GTA5 and has recently brought Metal Gear solid 5 both of which are rated as PEGI 18

Shouldnt steam have some sort of check in place to make sure underage people cant play certain games ... for example driving licence number or something held on file you cant get til your 18 because the stupid asking your birthday doesnt work ... people lie

Can I have a honest question? Since when its Valve's job to babysit kids purchases?

[Tito Shivan]

If i Send you a scan of an ID card, how can you verify it's my ID or not?

The age gate and sending an ID (not considering the countries that don't have an ID or don't have it standardised) boil to the same concept: Honesty.

[76561198001062896]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

If i Send you a scan of an ID card, how can you verify it's my ID or not?

The age gate and sending an ID (not considering the countries that don't have an ID or don't have it standardised) boil to the same concept: Honesty.

Exactly, plus im pretty sure (but correct me if Im wrong) that the current system technically speaking covers Valve from a legal standpoint

[Shinpool]

wow, you ask steam to monitor someone's kid's purchases, nice one. maybe we should ask netflix, twitter and facebook also to censoring mature posts, adult movies etc, cause somehow they could know the viewers's age.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Zetikla:

Exactly, plus im pretty sure (but correct me if Im wrong) that the current system technically speaking covers Valve from a legal standpoint

I very much doubt it. It's the same excuse as "She said, she was eighteen." Never heard of that one working.
As long as the rating are legally binding in the US, no one really cares. And digital distribution (or any content deliver for that matter) is still in a not fully covered state in most laws. If Steam would be a mail order service, a trust based age verification would certainly not be enough.

[Hanomaly]

It seems that the ratings .. at least the ESRB ones .. are just *guidelines* and have nothing to do with laws. From the ESRB's own website:

Is it illegal to sell or rent M (Mature) or AO (Adults Only) rated games to customers under 17 and 18 years of age respectively?

A ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association/Entertainment Software Association) found that video games are a constitutionally-protected form of expression, and that laws restricting their sale or rental based upon violent content are unconstitutional. That said, ESRB supports retailers' voluntary policies restricting the sale or rental of M (Mature) and AO (Adults Only) computer and video games in the United States and Canada to customers who are at least 17 and 18 years of age, respectively (unless permission from a parent has been obtained)

Through efforts such as the ESRB Retail Council (ERC) and a strong commitment on the part of major video game retailers, retail stores have vastly improved the rate at which they comply with their store policies, as measured both by the ERC mystery shopper audits as well as audits conducted by the FTC..

http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp#24

If you are under 18 and your parents say you can get an M rated video game it's totally okay.
Similarly in the USA, anyway, minors may go to rated R movies with parents. There is no law that says they cannot legally see a rated R movie at all.

As it says *stores* can personally have a policy to not sell a video game to a younger person, but that's about a store's policy.. And looks like it has nothing to do with what the store is legally obligated to do.

[Crix]

It's not Steam that is allowing it. It the responsability of the user. Why do you think there are end user lisence agreements, age gates etc.. To Cover their Ass from idiots and people who abuse their system. Big difference between walking into a game store and sitting behind a computer to purchase a game to an under age person.

[Wolfpig]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

If i Send you a scan of an ID card, how can you verify it's my ID or not?

The age gate and sending an ID (not considering the countries that don't have an ID or don't have it standardised) boil to the same concept: Honesty.

There are ways to check the id/age of persons.
Here in Germany for example Onlineshops can use ident services which not only check the id card, but also informations of Companys which provide "Credit" informations about the persons.
Or Post ident stuff where you have to go personally to it to prove that you are you for them.

And if they don't do it that way, like amazon, they have to send (articles 18+) that way that the mailman has to check the identity of the receiver.

But doing that stuff would mean for Steam a lot of more work...

[Duckilous]

If parents use Steam, they should use the Family View feature to limit the underage children to play any games that are too mature for them.

But this is the 21st century, sadly no one cares about ratings anymore.