Can we get proper Age verification please?

[Ishan451]

So Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was just added and its unavailable in my Region because Valve chooses not to let me do an age verification for my country so i can buy games i would otherwise legally allowed to purchase

Valve can you finally let me do something like PostIdent in germany so i can buy Adult games that you sell to everyone else?.

[Gwarsbane]

Here is the last thread about this same topic that was started just 5 hours ago, which you could have read if you used the search feature and even just looked at the first page... There are literally 100+ other threads over the years about this topic which all have the same information in it... if you want a change, go talk to your law makers.

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/4365752248009944948/

Originally posted by brian9824:

The issue is they are fully capable of doing it, the problem is if they feel its not cost effective to do so, or if they disagree with their draconic restrictions enough that they won't do it.

Valve is well aware of the issue, all you can do is wait and see if Germany rolls back their law, or if Steam decides its worth spending the resources on.

Sometimes the best solution is to do nothing, and unfortunately its one users might not like, but it is indeed a valid solution.

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Originally posted by Fenris:

I am over 30 years old, even my Steam Account is 17 Years old, and i am not allowed to buy Adult Only games, because of stupid German laws or Steam to lazy to implement a Age Verification.
The Customers are now suffering, because the German Goverment and Valve are to Stuborn to solve this...
Other Websites where able to implement a easy Age Verification, why is Valve not able to do it?

If german customers do not like the situation, they should be making a fuss at the people constantly making silly laws for numerous countries; the german government.

Else, in the past, they once did say they were working on something, but I very much doubt they care to complete that task in any sort of rush. If it was immensely profitable, they likely would've finished it long ago.

Originally posted by BJWyler:

At the end of the day, you need to elect better government officials. It's not Valve's job to work around the spurious laws of every country in the world just so a small handful of people can look at pixel boebies, or whatever some politician is trying to ban this week.

If Valve sees a good ROI on something, then they'll implement it. If they don't, then they won't. And most likely dedicating on going resources to this issue is probably not something that offers any ROI.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Here is the last thread about this same topic that was started just 5 hours ago, which you could have read if you used the search feature and even just looked at the first page... There are literally 100+ other threads over the years about this topic which all have the same information in it... if you want a change, go talk to your law makers.

There are several identification services that can be employed, costs i'd be willing to pay to have a flag put on my account to make it eligible for purchases.

All Valve has to do is use the existing services. There is no need for law makers being involved. I am absolutely in favor of the law in my country, what i am not in favor of is Valve refusing to do what every other business here does and the monopoly they abuse in this market space.

This got nothing to do with anyone but Valve.

[Fenris]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Here is the last thread about this same topic that was started just 5 hours ago, which you could have read if you used the search feature and even just looked at the first page... There are literally 100+ other threads over the years about this topic which all have the same information in it... if you want a change, go talk to your law makers.

There are several identification services that can be employed, costs i'd be willing to pay to have a flag put on my account to make it eligible for purchases.

All Valve has to do is use the existing services. There is no need for law makers being involved. I am absolutely in favor of the law in my country, what i am not in favor of is Valve refusing to do what every other business here does and the monopoly they abuse in this market space.

This got nothing to do with anyone but Valve.

i realy support your case and wish you more luck then me on my suggestion

[zirkustier]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Valve can you finally let me do something like PostIdent in germany so i can buy Adult games that you sell to everyone else?.

Oh, we can do PostIdent here in Germany to get access to all the games that are blocked for us? I didn't even know that.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Fenris:

i realy support your case and wish you more luck then me on my suggestion

I suggest you also contact your local "Verbraucherschutzzentrale" and issue a complaint. Pretty sure there are EU laws about the availability of products and considering Valve is a monopoly for many of these products there could very well be a case for them.

And since i was just told i should contact my law makers, i suggest you do the same.

Originally posted by zirkustier:

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Valve can you finally let me do something like PostIdent in germany so i can buy Adult games that you sell to everyone else?.

Oh, we can do PostIdent here in Germany to get access to all the games that are blocked for us? I didn't even know that.

We should be able to, but Valve doesn't want to add the option. This is entirely on Valve and them not using one of the many verification services. They just take the lazy way out and don't offer it, because they would need to incorporate it.

Would be so easy to just add it, we pay the fee, the same way we do when ordering "Adult only" stuff from Amazon (like Alkohol) and the rest is automatic. But Valve doesn't want to.

[rawWwRrr]

It's been a bit since I last saw something about it, but its not something Valve has given up on. They just need to find a solution that works for all parties.

[Nx Machina]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

This got nothing to do with anyone but Valve.

Did Valve implement the laws in Germany? Nope. Your government and politicians did.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Originally posted by Ishan451:

This got nothing to do with anyone but Valve.

Did Valve implement the laws in Germany? Nope. Your government and politicians did.

The laws ain't the problem. There are age verification services. Valve not using them is the problem.

[HikariLight]

Every country has different IDs, heck the USA has a different ID for each state.
Steam, has no right or reason to need access to private information like that.

The only way for Steam to ensure the user using the ID is the person on the ID would be for physical locations to check the validation of the ID in person. And that can be VERY expensive.

Also, international privacy laws would prevent Steam from keeping your ID info for too long.
Those are the same laws that prevent Steam from being able to remember your age/birthday.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Every country has different IDs, heck the USA has a different ID for each state.
Steam, has no right or reason to need access to private information like that.

And germany offers services that do identification checks. No different from Valve working with various banking services.

All Valve has to do is use one of the services, one such a service being the german mail, and their postident service. A service where valve generates a code, we go to the mail office, show our id and get a return code, that we enter in Valves system.

We could do that once to flag our Account as Adult account and then when we purchase adult games it generates a new code and we go through the process again while the purchase is held in escrow.

There are other services that do checks via video call and photo copies that could be done same day.. but the fact remains Valve only needs to use these services. They exist and many other retailers use them.

Got nothing to do with laws and all Valve needs to do is use one of the many existing services.

[HikariLight]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Every country has different IDs, heck the USA has a different ID for each state.
Steam, has no right or reason to need access to private information like that.

And germany offers services that do identification checks. No different from Valve working with various banking services.

All Valve has to do is use one of the services, one such a service being the german mail, and their postident service. A service where valve generates a code, we go to the mail office, show our id and get a return code, that we enter in Valves system.

We could do that once to flag our Account as Adult account and then when we purchase adult games it generates a new code and we go through the process again while the purchase is held in escrow.

There are other services that do checks via video call and photo copies that could be done same day.. but the fact remains Valve only needs to use these services. They exist and many other retailers use them.

Got nothing to do with laws and all Valve needs to do is use one of the many existing services.

As Valve is not a German company, Valve either does things they way they want within the confines of the foreign laws, or they can pull out entirely.
Valve would have to PAY money for the use of the ID check service a even then, they can only save that info for a few DAYS at max, that means every few days users would have to go back to the confirmation center.
Valve would make no money off of that and thus that's why they don't do it.
Valve is not required to use any sort of ID check service.

[Ben Lubar]

But they haven't done that, which means there must be a reason that they haven't done it. Maybe some part of the system wouldn't work for Steam. Maybe they simply haven't gotten around to it. We don't know why, but we do know that they haven't done what you suggest in multiple years.

[Squirrel With Acorn]

Originally posted by HikariLight:

Originally posted by Ishan451:

And germany offers services that do identification checks. No different from Valve working with various banking services.

All Valve has to do is use one of the services, one such a service being the german mail, and their postident service. A service where valve generates a code, we go to the mail office, show our id and get a return code, that we enter in Valves system.

We could do that once to flag our Account as Adult account and then when we purchase adult games it generates a new code and we go through the process again while the purchase is held in escrow.

There are other services that do checks via video call and photo copies that could be done same day.. but the fact remains Valve only needs to use these services. They exist and many other retailers use them.

Got nothing to do with laws and all Valve needs to do is use one of the many existing services.

As Valve is not a German company, Valve either does things they way they want within the confinesbof the foreign laws, or they can pull out entirely.
Valve would have to PAY money for the use of the ID check service a even then, they can only save that info for a few DAYS at max, that means every few days users would have to go back to the confirmation center.
Valve would make no money off of that and thus that's why they don't do it.

That isn't true at all, because getting a confirmation of identity from a service isn't personal information, Valve can keep that confirmation forever. I believe Valve already does this with South Korea Steam users.

[HikariLight]

Originally posted by Purple:

Originally posted by HikariLight:

As Valve is not a German company, Valve either does things they way they want within the confinesbof the foreign laws, or they can pull out entirely.
Valve would have to PAY money for the use of the ID check service a even then, they can only save that info for a few DAYS at max, that means every few days users would have to go back to the confirmation center.
Valve would make no money off of that and thus that's why they don't do it.

That isn't true at all, because getting a confirmation of identity from a service isn't personal information, Valve can keep that confirmation forever. I believe Valve already does this with South Korea Steam users.

How does Valve know that the person on the ID is the owner of the account?
No one submits ID when they make an account, so how can they be sure that the person claiming to be the owner is the owner?

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Ishan451:

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

Here is the last thread about this same topic that was started just 5 hours ago, which you could have read if you used the search feature and even just looked at the first page... There are literally 100+ other threads over the years about this topic which all have the same information in it... if you want a change, go talk to your law makers.

There are several identification services that can be employed, costs i'd be willing to pay to have a flag put on my account to make it eligible for purchases.

Yeah thing is they'd have to run this check everytime you visit a page or makke a purchase.

Originally posted by Ishan451:

All Valve has to do is use the existing services. p

Which cost money.

Originally posted by Ishan451:

There is no need for law makers being involved. I am absolutely in favor of the law in my country, what i am not in favor of is Valve refusing to do what every other business here does and the monopoly they abuse in this market space.

This got nothing to do with anyone but Valve.

Well then you or any company is free to fill the niche Valve is neglecting yes?