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redsimonDE 2020年12月22日 9時24分
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It is enough, age verification system now for German users
Today Steam dropped a nuke for users living in Germany:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/ki12if/steam_now_regionblocks_all_adultonly_games_in/

In short, Steam SILENTLY (no notification was given) banned all games that included full n00dity or intense 3rotic interaction (sorry for describing it like this to avoid censorship) for German users.
Steam implemented this silent ban obviously to avoid backlash and criticism, as is common for internet corporations unfortunately.

For frakks sake Valve, implement a proper age verification system already!

German users have demanded this for years and years. We have spoken with our wallets to support Steam and were hit with censorship after censorship.

This censorship may be due to German laws, but it only needs to prevent minors from accessing these games, not everyone.

It's not like the German video game market is small, you made a lot of revenue from Germany for years and years, and continue to do so.

Stop treating your German customers like dirt.
I'm an adult, I am allowed to buy these games, but you are to lazy to add a feature to your store even though there's a good amount of money in for you as an incentive.

In fact, I am willing to pay a premium to access everything that's not illegal in Germany (that's almost everything if you're an adult). I'm sure many other German users would too.

It is time Valve made a proper statement about this and promised to add an age verification system to the Steam client.

Technically Steam isn't allowed to sell ANY age restricted game for the age brackets of 16+ or 18+ in Germany without age verification.

These age groups of the German rating system for games ALSO need to be verified.
But they are still on sale without necessary age verification.

Apparently German authorities and courts have not applied any pressure with regards to that. Yet.

Link to the discussion in German in German discussions forum:

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/24/3004429475616252303/
最近の変更はredsimonDEが行いました; 2020年12月23日 4時07分
投稿主: MurxusMaximus:
Just as a note what suffices in Germany as age verification:

Cigarette Vending machines have a slot for either a banking card/identity card and can successfully (as in legally sufficient) check the age. Completely *offline* - no access to some 'secure government database' or whatever you think is necessary needed.
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211-225 / 361 のコメントを表示
ragnarok の投稿を引用:
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
Well considering you have to be at least 13 to create an account on Steam....its a reasonable assumption that you meet the age requirements for those games... otherwise they'd just have to terminate your account ;))
Well, they didn't verify my age back then, so I guess this wouldn't hold up to German laws as well...
They don't actually need to. EIther you are telling the truth, then finem. if tou lied, then they simply terminate your account because all contracts with you are null and void.
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
They don't actually need to. EIther you are telling the truth, then finem. if tou lied, then they simply terminate your account because all contracts with you are null and void.
Going by this logic, they would either have to verify all ages or terminate all german accounts.
ragnarok の投稿を引用:
Well, they didn't verify my age back then, so I guess this wouldn't hold up to German laws as well...
They don't actually need to. EIther you are telling the truth, then finem. if tou lied, then they simply terminate your account because all contracts with you are null and void.

That's basic contract law for any country. Willful deceit and false information render a contract null and void. This is why that age gate is enough for most countries. If a parent finds a child did some purchasing then they can't really blame valve because their child engaged in fraud which is a criminal offense and as the parents they themselves would be on the hook for the child's behaviour. Never mind the implications as to the quality of their parenting.
最近の変更はStart_Runningが行いました; 2020年12月25日 9時38分
Xentar 2020年12月25日 6時45分 
Diese Inhalte sind in Ihrem Land nicht gestattet. wird das mal wider geändert weil weil ich finde die sperre echt mist
Laura の投稿を引用:

But we have now a different problem: After a renewed control, whether the old way is still right, the official authority has determined that this concept may not be as safe as it once was. Kids are using their cell phones more and more, for example, and parents have less and less control over what they do. For this reason, they are now in the process of tightening up the reform and putting the content providers under pressure again.
RIght and are you already seeing the slippery slope?
First it was one thing, then that was not enough, now its another thing, how long before that's not enoug? Valve may just decide that its simply not worth the hassle of keeping up with whatever notion blows through some virtue signalling politician's brain and just not sell any of the games that are in issue.

It all boils back to the question. "Is it worth it?"

To illustrate the extent of what this means, when provider do not comply with a lack of age verification, not only pornographic games needs to be removed, but also all games that are provided with an 18+ seal. Steam has to block a lot of games, if they want to stay in the german market.
And? See that also brings developers into this. Developers will just start modifying their content to slip under the ratings . I mean they're kinda used to doing that for Germany.

What do you think the public opinion is?
"I think it's great that my kid can just get hardcore pornography".
Now see thats the sort of hyperbole that the politicians yuse to justify things. It's not a rational statement. Its a stattement based purely on emotion and meant to trigger an emotinal response, not an intellectuual one.

The simple counter is, "
"Parents need to take more responsibility for their children"
Which is the truth. Parents simply exercising the tools available to them would negate the issue.

Or if you want to go emotional.
"Why are you outsourcing parental responsibility to megacorps?"

I am also a parent and have a 14 year old daughter who uses Steam. I definitely want a free and neutral internet where everyone can access things they want, but I also don't want my daughter watching content that maybe she shouldn't yet. And to realize this, I currently see it only in the hands of the content providers.
Or you know. Making use of the various parental control features already available. I mean lets be frank. Valve knows enough to know that very little will stop a determined youngster from getting their hands on stuff. Nothing stops them.

They also know that barring those games from german s won't stop germans from buying the games.
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
redsimonDE の投稿を引用:

Alwys the same nonsense.
You were told numerous times that necessary age verifcation is not simply based on rated or not rated.
All games rated "16" or "18" need age verifcation, too.
So Steam selectively banned games for users in Germany, but ist still non-compliant.
You strangely seemed to have avoided answering my actual question. Are those games ratet +16 or higher in germany?
And I also told you before pr0n doesn't get a rating, ever. It is just categorised as pr0n.

Start_Running の投稿を引用:
But no one can say when and if that will happen. I am not an advocate of this solution, but currently we have to accept that certain services on the Internet will no longer be available in Germany. Let's hope that Steam is not one of them.
You can accept... or you can strive to change your government's policy. You can hope Steam does what you want but as said STeam's actions and decisions follow cold hard numbers and the numbers may not be in your favor. "Pray for Rain, but still dig the ditch" as the saying goes.

Valve is motivated by money. Your politicians are motivated by public opinion. You have more sway over them than you do over Valve.
You really don't know what's going on in Germany.

German politicians give a rat's butt over what the people think. They only care about articles about them by big media organisations.
Accordingly Germans can expect more forthcoming behavior from a company.
If I have a choice, I always contact a company over a politician, in this case Valve.
cinedine 2020年12月25日 7時07分 
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
---
Don't know why people even keep arguing about it. It's a suggestion. Points in favour for it has been brought fore. Possible implementations have been suggested.
Points against it? Not so much. Instead it's the usual suspects arguing just because they have to much free time, twisting, moving goal posts and strawmanning like they get paid for.
Dude just settle down. This is a discussion forum. You know the rules. If you can't handle a few points and counter points against you. Go curl up in a hugbox and tell each other how great you are.

There are no counterpoints.
There is just baseless rambling about how it's not worth it from people who lack the data to actually tell wether its worth and and who ignore the data points borught up as well as baseless rambling about our contries laws from people who have no clue.
And it's the same people who are derailing and trolling in nearly every thread because they have nothing else to do in their lives. That's not a discussion.
Got an Answer from Steam Support.

"Dieses Problem ist uns bekannt, und wir arbeiten gerade an einem Update, um das Problem zu beheben.

"We are aware of this issue and we are currently working on an update to address it.

I´m going to ask them how this update is going to look.
Laura の投稿を引用:
Do you see the conflict there? I am also a parent and have a 14 year old daughter who uses Steam. I definitely want a free and neutral internet where everyone can access things they want, but I also don't want my daughter watching content that maybe she shouldn't yet. And to realize this, I currently see it only in the hands of the content providers.
That's in your hands not the "content providers".
If you're that overly worried, you can get parental controls and learn to use a firewall or any site-blocking ability which gives you more control rather than relying on everyone else to do what you should be doing, else you don't get to complain when you put zero effort into it.



Oghisan の投稿を引用:
Got an Answer from Steam Support.

"Dieses Problem ist uns bekannt, und wir arbeiten gerade an einem Update, um das Problem zu beheben.

"We are aware of this issue and we are currently working on an update to address it.

I´m going to ask them how this update is going to look.
They're not obligated to tell you how something internal is going to work, please don't waste Steam Supports time when you can just wait and find out while other people actually need help with things.

ragnarok の投稿を引用:
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
They don't actually need to. EIther you are telling the truth, then finem. if tou lied, then they simply terminate your account because all contracts with you are null and void.
Going by this logic, they would either have to verify all ages or terminate all german accounts.
Actually going by the logic they don't need to do anything, if it's brought to their attention then the individual gets a lock/ban for breaking the agreement. You're either lying when making a contract which can and will get you in trouble, or you're a legitimate user, but at anytime breaking the agreement can have consequences.
So summed up I can't buy AO on Steam anymore and People also tend to mix the German rating system with the US rating system... which is confusing because Adults only in Germany means USK rated 18, unrated (automatically rated 18 without restrictions), indexed, confiscated by a court for §131 or §86a. All of this is Adults Only in Germany but can be legally bought by any adult. You need to verify your age anyway to buy those kind of games in Germany. In the end it hurts the small companies more than the German customer.

To the people moaning about the German government:
As a German citizen I can drive as fast as physics allow on the Autobahn, go to a brothel because prostitution is totally legal here, buy and drink alcohol in public or own guns which includes Shotguns etc. We also have one of the social systems in the world and as it could be seen in the current pandemic one of the best health care systems. So it is not so bad living in Germany under the current government :) Could it be better? Of course but could also be worse.

最近の変更はDanTheKrautが行いました; 2020年12月25日 9時34分
Laura の投稿を引用:
Those are some strange accusations. Where do you get the statement that I have not made any efforts in this direction?
Laura の投稿を引用:
I am also a parent and have a 14 year old daughter who uses Steam. I definitely want a free and neutral internet where everyone can access things they want, but I also don't want my daughter watching content that maybe she shouldn't yet. And to realize this, I currently see it only in the hands of the content providers.

Laura の投稿を引用:
I am not of the absolute opinion that content providers now have the duty to take responsibility.
You can see the contradiction here

Laura の投稿を引用:
But given the situation, it would help solve the problem instead of going through the process of setting up another government to represent the interests of a handful of Steam users (who want to play games with anime tiddies).
Or we can stick with the blanket response until they come up with anything if they so choose to do so since the fault lies within the german government.



最近の変更はMad Scientistが行いました; 2020年12月25日 9時40分
redsimonDE の投稿を引用:
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
You strangely seemed to have avoided answering my actual question. Are those games ratet +16 or higher in germany?
And I also told you before pr0n doesn't get a rating, ever. It is just categorised as pr0n.
and are thiose games categorised by you're country's rating board as porn?

Start_Running の投稿を引用:

You can accept... or you can strive to change your government's policy. You can hope Steam does what you want but as said STeam's actions and decisions follow cold hard numbers and the numbers may not be in your favor. "Pray for Rain, but still dig the ditch" as the saying goes.

Valve is motivated by money. Your politicians are motivated by public opinion. You have more sway over them than you do over Valve.
You really don't know what's going on in Germany.

German politicians give a rat's butt over what the people think. They only care about articles about them by big media organisations.
Accordingly Germans can expect more forthcoming behavior from a company.
If I have a choice, I always contact a company over a politician, in this case Valve.

Yeah and that kinda explains why your government can afford to give a rats ass. Vicious cycle.
At some point a company will simply say 'Not worth it' and that will be that. And Valve seems to be testing that for the moment.

WHat's going on in Germany doesn't change the fact that Valve like any business is motivated by money. Everything is a CBA for them and sometimes that CBA isn't gonna by in your favour.





Laura の投稿を引用:

So I don't know if the reverse is to say that you can just let Megacorps get away with anything. I hope that's not your opinion on this and I'm just misunderstanding you.
The megacorps aren;'t trying to get away with anything. They Valve was given a choice. Do X, or Stop Selling these games. VAlve at the moment has chosen the second option,. A business will always pick the option that yields the best CBA.

Anyway, the discussion is a bit beyond the scope set here. This is just about Steam and its age verification.
Online age verificaation has long been a tricky issue, because again you really can't verify the person on the other end. Do you know how most credit card numbers get stolen? By cashiers with good memories or smart phone cameras.. Every system boils down to the honor-system and in which case just asking the question uis as effective as anything else.

If the person would lie in answer to that question, then they would just as readily give someone else's id number as well.

So would it be worth it?
I don't know. If Valve decides not to participate in the German market anymore, it's probably quite a mistake (for them) if they don"t.
It again depends on how those numbers stack up. Your country may not be tthe big spender you think it is.

Someone else will certainly take the chance, or there is already with PlayStation Network a service that offers sufficient age verification for German conditions.
Mmmm hmmm and?

There is alsoa trend among AAA developers is to offer their own launchers or storefronts anyway. Many things can happen.
Yeah and you may notice that those launchers tend to have fewer features and offer fewer consumer protections ;-).

As said by others. The matter of connecting to a government database is rather a tricky thing as is securing such sensitive information.
"Laura" の投稿を引用:
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
Yeah and you may notice that those launchers tend to have fewer features and offer fewer consumer protections ;-).

As said by others. The matter of connecting to a government database is rather a tricky thing as is securing such sensitive information.

No, PSN already does that. Without a connection to the government database. I just can for sure say how much complient this is, as i usually do not use PSN
And what exactly did the german government give psn in order to achieve this?
Afterall, it would be some sort of country proprietary tool would it not? Given Sony's past security including storing users passwords in plain text, I doubt this tool is well protected against bad actors.

Also just because another service does it, doesn't mean it's easy or that everyone should do it. Likely, the major difference here is that PSN sales to Germany are greater for AAA / Hyped games, not so much visual novel / hentai games that are on Steam. Many people seem to intentionally ignore this when talking about PC Digital Store vs Console Physical & Console Online store.
最近の変更はMad Scientistが行いました; 2020年12月25日 10時23分
Start_Running の投稿を引用:
ragnarok の投稿を引用:
If this would be about age verification alone, Steam fails miserably, because they can't even be sure I'm mature enough for USK6 or USK12. Going this route would basically vanish everything, except for educational kindergarten-software, from Steam.
Well considering you have to be at least 13 to create an account on Steam....its a reasonable assumption that you meet the age requirements for those games... otherwise they'd just have to terminate your account ;))

lmao, you couldn't have shown more clearly that you don't understand the issue. How does Steam know you are over 13? Because you said so. That doesn't stop a 12-year-old from making a Steam account... man, how can you argue this issue still without even understanding what it's about?


Start_Running の投稿を引用:
ragnarok の投稿を引用:
Well, they didn't verify my age back then, so I guess this wouldn't hold up to German laws as well...
They don't actually need to. EIther you are telling the truth, then finem. if tou lied, then they simply terminate your account because all contracts with you are null and void.

Wrong. The moment they sell a higher-rated game to a minor they are in violation of the law and subject to high penalties. Simply terminating the account afterwards doesn't change a thing. And again you are showing you don't understand the issue. So just stop maybe.


Start_Running の投稿を引用:
That's basic contract law for any country. Willful deceit and false information render a contract null and void. This is why that age gate is enough for most countries. If a parent finds a child did some purchasing then they can't really blame valve because their child engaged in fraud which is a criminal offense and as the parents they themselves would be on the hook for the child's behaviour. Never mind the implications as to the quality of their parenting.

:steamlaughcry: :steamlaughcry: :steamlaughcry:
"It's the children's responsibility to tell the truth, not the store's to actually verify their age." *facepalm*



Mr. Gentlebot の投稿を引用:
Oghisan の投稿を引用:
Got an Answer from Steam Support.

"Dieses Problem ist uns bekannt, und wir arbeiten gerade an einem Update, um das Problem zu beheben.

"We are aware of this issue and we are currently working on an update to address it.

I´m going to ask them how this update is going to look.
They're not obligated to tell you how something internal is going to work, please don't waste Steam Supports time when you can just wait and find out while other people actually need help with things.

How about instead you stop telling people what to do? I'm sure Steam support is perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what tickets they reply to how without you leaping to their defense like some corporation's white knight. I mean, this issue obviously doesn't affect you, so why not just keep out of it, instead of being a condescending ♥♥♥♥ to people who it actually affects? Can you really not handle someone complaining to a company about an issue?

最近の変更はCatraGirlが行いました; 2020年12月25日 10時33分
Laura の投稿を引用:
You are both are clearly misunderstanding how the process actually works here.

That really sums up this thread tbh.
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投稿日: 2020年12月22日 9時24分
投稿数: 361