Microsoft offers account age determination in Australia, Steam still only accepts credit card verification

Abstract:

Microsoft is directly completing age verification for some Australian users, but local Steam users still need to submit valid credit card information when purchasing R18+ games. This requirement is not automatically waived even if the Steam account is more than twenty years old and has R18+ games.

An email sent by Microsoft to users shows that the system can estimate whether the account holder is an adult based on long-term account activity. After being determined as an adult account, its age verification status will be updated to "Verified", and you can continue to use related functions of some products such as Microsoft and Xbox stores without completing additional verification.

In contrast, Valve currently only offers credit card verification for Australian Steam users. If users want to prove that they are over 18 years old and purchase R18+ games such as "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots", "Doom: Eternal" or "Ringworld", they need to fill in a credit card information that can still be used.

The problem with this approach is that credit cards are not a commonly used payment instrument among Australian users. Account registration time and existing purchase records cannot replace verification: even if the user registered for Steam as early as 2003 and already has multiple R18+ games in the account, credit card information must still be submitted when purchasing.

Age verification itself also involves security and privacy concerns. Credit cards, facial scans, and government-issued identification all require users to provide different types of personal information, but Steam currently gives Australian users no room to choose a verification method.

Valve’s solution formally meets local age verification requirements, but a single credit card channel may prevent adult users without a valid credit card from directly purchasing R18+ games. Microsoft has begun to update the verification status based on the long-term activities of some accounts. There are currently obvious differences between the two processing methods.