Need help: When will the age verification system finally arrive?

[trinner]

I am 39 years old, live in germany and am not able to buy many of the games & dlcs here on the platform because steam stil hasn´t implemeted an age verification system. The last time I asked the support about this matter was around 3 years ago and they said it is beeing worked on. How can this take so much time?! Many websites have implemented one of the multiple feasible methods (like entering the number from your ID card that every citizen has). This should be a matter of weeks and not many many years. And Valve is even a big company so what is the excuse now to not have implemented this years ago? With each sale in which I am not able to buy stuff, I am getting more and more angry. :(
So, please...any official from Valve...could you please explain here where the problem is and why the whole topic is not going forward? Over the years you got many many complaints about this topic. Why are you of all companies not ale to work this out? Can we, the german customers, help in any way? I just want some information about this, I can´t have this silent treatment any more. If there is a problem somewhere than tell your customers about it.
Regarding sexuality, we have less stricter laws then many other countries, but the content should only be available to adults. So thanks to you not implementing an age verification system, we suddenly are one of the countries with the strictest ban on nudity on Steam. I really don´t get it. I hope for a positive answer this time. What is the status?

[Iceira]

Sounds more like own Germany Law issue. ( steam has no adult restriction other then your Goverment has on each Country. ) you can try clear your cookie that now is steam settings web browser cache data. maybe that will reset your cookie after they change it to USER DATA as web and cookie into 1 Solution.

[Crazy Tiger]

When Valve can be bothered to do so. But so far it seems they found it easier to just not sell such games in Germany.

I wouldn't count on a change anytime soon.

[Count_Dandyman]

Originally posted by trinner:

Originally posted by Iceira W10:

Sounds more like own Germany Law issue. ( steam has no adult restriction other then your Goverment has on each Country. ) you can try clear your cookie that now is steam settings web browser cache data. maybe that will reset your cookie after they change it to USER DATA as web and cookie into 1 Solution.

No this isn´t a law issue. the law is perfectly fine. adults can get anything nudity/erortic related and minors should be protected from it. The problem here is 100% on steams side. It would be no problem to implement an age verification system. Many much smaler websites/companies hae done it in the past. Just enter your ID number one time or maybe verify your age via post ident... there are many ways here to verif the age of a customer. If Valve would say they have tried some of the ways and could name resons why they dnt work for them and that there is an issue with some aspects of the german law... then ok... but until valve doesn´t say somethin official about this, I stand by my point. There is no reason to not have implemented this a longtime ago. I dont know how easy this would be in other countries withc similar problems like Japan, but in Germany it´s easy to do, if the company wants to.

It only looks simple to you because you aren't considering the barest of basics of the issues Valve have to when it comes to this issue.

Hole number one in your idea is this how do you make sure the person entering the ID number is the actual person that ID belongs to and not somebody else that is potentially still underage.

The sad reality is that there is a huge tangle of laws that don't always work together well and major technical checkpoints that are extremely tricky to fully hit and manage for an entirely online service handling digital goods that are why so far Valve have chosen to take the path of compliance by ensuring no-one that should be covered under that law can get the games without major violations of the system that take the liability out of their hands.

[Iceira]

actual it quite odd, you want a system and in most part of the world children is not allowed to get a job before a certain age, so again maybe this is a outdate way to even have age verification, and you can go other way, where is the parrent here, it aient that hard to install parrent software
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-parental-control-software

so im not so sure steam need to make such verification just because you think its a good idea.

ask any adult here, any site how old are you check, maybe install car lock kitchen lock and alot of other things to make world stupid, in 35 years i have seen age check, this tell alot about stupid parrent and the world we live in, you might not like the reply, adult earn the cash not the kids and yet we still see age check, because no one see the other side and they keep ask me 35 years later, be happy we dont kill ppl for make such annoying ideas.

I bet even then we are 70 years old we will still see how old are you for visit this game or page site. ( im pretty sure rest of the world will be feed up with age check by then. remove your crap game devs and point parrent in better parrent sofware lock.

noone get scared of old DOOM anymore, back then it was not a kid game, worth a thought, things change.

im not so sure steam will install such, it only backfire then somethings goes wrong with it.

[no154370]

Originally posted by trinner:

I am 39 years old, live in germany and am not able to buy many of the games & dlcs here on the platform because steam stil hasn´t implemeted an age verification system. The last time I asked the support about this matter was around 3 years ago and they said it is beeing worked on. How can this take so much time?! Many websites have implemented one of the multiple feasible methods (like entering the number from your ID card that every citizen has). This should be a matter of weeks and not many many years. And Valve is even a big company so what is the excuse now to not have implemented this years ago? With each sale in which I am not able to buy stuff, I am getting more and more angry. :(
So, please...any official from Valve...could you please explain here where the problem is and why the whole topic is not going forward? Over the years you got many many complaints about this topic. Why are you of all companies not ale to work this out? Can we, the german customers, help in any way? I just want some information about this, I can´t have this silent treatment any more. If there is a problem somewhere than tell your customers about it.
Regarding sexuality, we have less stricter laws then many other countries, but the content should only be available to adults. So thanks to you not implementing an age verification system, we suddenly are one of the countries with the strictest ban on nudity on Steam. I really don´t get it. I hope for a positive answer this time. What is the status?

go and read the replies of the people in this thread

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/3729575042629861383/?ctp=2

what you are asking for is "extra security".

but did you even bother to read the news on Australia where their companies are being "hacked by hackers" and tens of thousands of peoples' Personal Information are stolen by the hackers.

this includes ID number, Date of Birth, Place of Residence, Medical Records...........etc.

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not everyone got ID card at all.

you need to be at a certain age then can you apply for ID card.

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instead of making it more secure, you are making it more "vulnerable" by giving "hackers" the incentives to "hack" the Steam Platform.

p.s i have diploma for security network for computers.

[RiO]

Originally posted by no154370:

instead of making it more secure, you are making it more "vulnerable" by giving "hackers" the incentives to "hack" the Steam Platform.

Patently false.
Valve wouldn't be allowed to directly process national identification documents from German citizens. At best they would have to outsource ID verification to a trusted third party and all they would get back is either a yea or a nay; along with at most a constructed identifier assigned to the request by the third-party, for audit trails.

Actually; the EU is working on homogenized digital passports at the level of the entire Union, which will allow for standardized claims verification such as "is this user of adult age?" to be issued via standardized APIs that trusted third parties erected and retained by and at the national state level must then implement as web-based identity-management services.

My guess is Valve is purposely holding off on any implementation work that would be specific to any particular EU market, including the German market, and is instead waiting for that new EU-wide thing. Valve do so like their one-size-fits-all solutions.

[Panthear]

Technically speaking lots of Online Gaming sites have introduced age verification systems, which are accepted by German law. Why not simply cooperate with these providers for a simple solution?

I asked for this and checked with support, but all I got till now was "Valve is working on a solution"...
But this is now going on for 1.5 years, and got the same info 6 month back....

So, we maybe should be happy that they are working on it....

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/3421062490368325648/?ctp=2

Interestingly enough the "opposite" (removing the capability to add free adult patches) was implemented recently. So everything which is "blocking" seems to be done way faster then anything which could boost their sales. Let alone the fact, that a USK 18 rated game is allowed to be sold irregardless if you are 18 or not....

I mean honestly I am at steam for >14 years... which alone would make me an adult (as I hardly could have bought something with 4 years ;).

So given the above: They could e.g. implement the age check by simply checking your steam user account. If it is older than 12 years, then you must be over 18.

Just to name a very simple and easy solution.

Looking at other solution (e.g. TV is allowed to show adult content between 11p.m. and 6a.m.), there could be other "easy" solutions as well...

But maybe RIO is right that they are waiting for the "EU" solution....

[Muppet among Puppets]

If you can activate a sim card that needs specific personal verification
without handing a passport to the phone company,
verify your age to receive a package,

you can verify your age to steam the same way.

If they use that service of the post office.


It is that simple. Systems are in place.

It needs a QR code, like the one you use for login. Not so out of range for steam, isnt it?