this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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Steam Age Check Locks Out 65% of Adult Australians [2026] (tech-insider.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by eremophila@lemmy.zip to c/australia@aussie.zone
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"Steam started blocking Australian users from viewing or buying 18+ rated games on September 9, 2026, unless they attach a valid credit card to their account. Valve’s rollout affects hundreds of mature-rated titles, including Cyberpunk 2077 and Doom Eternal, and it doesn’t matter whether the account is brand new or fifteen years old with a library full of paid-for adult games. Without a credit card on file, those store pages, search results, and even home-page recommendations simply disappear."

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago

Farrrk. I wrote this 2 days ago on my Quokkau account but it looks like it never federated. Here it is again:

Are you sure that letter is relevant here? They didn't implement this at the start of the year when the minimum age of 16 for social media came in. And the age limit that just came in seems to be an 18+ one, not 16+. This is related to a different legislative instrument that happens to also fall under the Online Safety Act 2021. From the eSafety website:

For search engine services, internet carriage services, and hosting services, the relevant Age-Restricted Material Codes took effect starting on 27 December 2025.

For designated internet services, relevant electronic services, social media services, app distribution platforms, and equipment providers, the relevant Age-Restricted Material Codes took effect starting on 9 March 2026.

Some requirements under the Age-Restricted Material Codes have a staged commencement. This includes some requirements around appropriate age checks, including for logged-in users of search engine services (must be in place before 27 June 2026), and for users seeking to download apps rated R18+ from app distribution services (must be in place before 9 September 2026).

Note that none of that page is about the social media minimum age law which came into effect on 10 December 2025.

That letter seems pretty narrowly talking about the classification of Steam as an "age‐restricted social media platform". Whether they were classified as such or not in the end I'm not sure, but this latest round of age verification doesn't give us a hint either way. I'd guess they were not, since the government was pretty clear about saying gaming wouldn't be included under the SMMA law and I don't recall hearing anything about Steam being included in any restrictions until last week.

The requirements around multiple methods do not exist in the Age-Restricted Material Codes, only the Social Media Minimum Age obligation, though eSafety says companies "should take into account the...fairness of the solution" (note: pdf link. Check section 5.1(c)). Steam's approach may be challengable legally, but it is not nearly as much of a slam dunk as it would be if the SMMA obligation were the relevant one.