Recently, Steam users in Australia are facing a new age-verification barrier when trying to view or buy games rated 18+. Both Xbox and PlayStation has already done so following social media ban. After all, illegal not to, with fines up to $50 (AUD) million at stake.

The problem is Valve asks users to add a valid Australian credit card before they can access mature content and it can’t be any other cards. Unlike both Xbox and PlayStation, which offers different ways of verifying your age.

The problem is that credit card are very hard to get in Australia and most of the teens aren’t able to get a credit card and resort in using neo banks like UP or a debit card which Valve has not supported. Credit card also requires card holders to meet bank’s credit assessment criteria.

Without a valid credit card added, you will simply get a message saying “Valve is required by the Age-Restricted Material App Distribution Services Code to verify that you are 18 or older before accessing mature content. If you wish to do so, please add a valid Australian credit card to your account and afterwards update the Mature Content Preferences.”

The reason Valve may not offer other form of verification methods comes down to safety, privacy laws, and Valve’s corporate philosophy regarding user data. And we’ve already seen what happened at Discord.

For now, the storefront’s chosen route is a credit card – not a selfie, passport scan, or uploaded driver’s license. However some users can verify that some of their debit cards from ANZ, CommBank, NAB, and Westpac do work.