how to use steam to give a gift to a child?

[doghairedinfant]

before summer 2017, you could buy a steam game as a gift and keep it in your gift inventory (or whatever), and then open it after christmas.

i'm thinking about buying a game that's on sale. what's the best way to do that without the family member discovering it ahead of time?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Incorrect buying gifts for inventory was removed years ago.

You can buy gifts and send it to people who you want on your friend list, or you can select the option to gift the game to who you on your friend list at a later date. There's a button you click for that and you check out to gift.

[doghairedinfant]

years ago? when was it removed? i thought for sure i did it in december of 2016.

my child doesn't have his own steam account so that wouldn't work for me.

for anyone else having a similar problem: you can buy the game, and instead of installing it, right click on the game in your steam library and select "set categories", then select the "hide game" check box.

so far this seems to have prevented it from coming up right away in the steam library, as well as the "don't forget to play!" section in big picture mode.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

The system was removed in order to fight against fraud, and scammers.

I suggest making an account for your child at some point your child may want his/her account. There's family control you can set up on the client as well for his/her account. You can also do family share between the accounts as well. Please note that only one Library can be active at one time, that means if he/she playing one of your games, and you start up a game, he/she get a warning they have 5 minutes to save, and quit, now if they were playing their own game on their own library, and you were playing your own game in your own library this won't affect either of you, it's only when one goes into the other account library.

Also if you do wish to do this, then making games go hidden is your only option really, but if they know how to check your history on the account, or check the hidden section, then not much can be done about it, other than setting up the family control, and exclude the game from appearing.

Also that buy game at a later date can also work with games that are on sale.so the idea not bad at all.

[かぐや]

It was not "years" ago. It was 1 and half year ago.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1301948399254001159

[doghairedinfant]

Originally posted by かぐや:

It was not "years" ago. It was 1 and half year ago.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1301948399254001159

ahh. so you're saying it happened in summer of 2017. crazy. thought i posted the same thing up there, wasn't sure, i refuse to scroll up. i'm more of a "live in the moment" kind of guy.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Originally posted by かぐや:

It was not "years" ago. It was 1 and half year ago.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1301948399254001159

Far as I remember they started these changes back in 2016 for ban-enabled games

[doghairedinfant]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

The system was removed in order to fight against fraud, and scammers.

I suggest making an account for your child at some point your child may want his/her account.

at some point i imagine my child may want an account. i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

for right now, and i imagine for most people with children (like, pre-teen children) who play steam games, we're kind of in this sweet spot where the kids are becomming computer literate and may get excited when big picture boots up and displays the game you just bought and says "don't forget to download this new game!", but don't have the ability yet to search for hidden games or go through my purchasing history.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by doghairedinfant:

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

The system was removed in order to fight against fraud, and scammers.

I suggest making an account for your child at some point your child may want his/her account.

at some point i imagine my child may want an account. i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

for right now, and i imagine for most people with children (like, pre-teen children) who play steam games, we're kind of in this sweet spot where the kids are becomming computer literate and may get excited when big picture boots up and displays the game you just bought and says "don't forget to download this new game!", but don't have the ability yet to search for hidden games or go through my purchasing history.

Keep in mind Valve does not permit accounts for users under 13 (16 in the EU).

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Create an account for them, enable family view and purchase games for them as gifts.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Originally posted by Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

The system was removed in order to fight against fraud, and scammers.

I suggest making an account for your child at some point your child may want his/her account. There's family control you can set up on the client as well for his/her account. You can also do family share between the accounts as well. Please note that only one Library can be active at one time, that means if he/she playing one of your games, and you start up a game, he/she get a warning they have 5 minutes to save, and quit, now if they were playing their own game on their own library, and you were playing your own game in your own library this won't affect either of you, it's only when one goes into the other account library.

Also if you do wish to do this, then making games go hidden is your only option really, but if they know how to check your history on the account, or check the hidden section, then not much can be done about it, other than setting up the family control, and exclude the game from appearing.

Also that buy game at a later date can also work with games that are on sale.so the idea not bad at all.

and more importantly , to fight against key websites which could just have tons of copies sitting in the gift inventory ( activated through stolen keys , stolen credit cards , or simply bought in a cheap region )

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by Crashed:

Originally posted by doghairedinfant:

at some point i imagine my child may want an account. i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

for right now, and i imagine for most people with children (like, pre-teen children) who play steam games, we're kind of in this sweet spot where the kids are becomming computer literate and may get excited when big picture boots up and displays the game you just bought and says "don't forget to download this new game!", but don't have the ability yet to search for hidden games or go through my purchasing history.

Keep in mind Valve does not permit accounts for users under 13 (16 in the EU).

They don't permit creation of accounts by people under that age but thats not the same as them not being allowed to have one.

The difference is that having an adult create it means that adult is giving permission and accepting responsibility for ensuring the account is properly limited meaning Valve don't have extra legal liabilities over a younger user.