Originally posted by Farsight:

UK Age Verification

What're the known workarounds for those of us who only use debit cards?

Purchase elsewhere.

Aside from that I would be cautious about exploiting any workarounds that might exist. Figuring out how to do something you shouldn't be allowed to do, where the intent is to restricted accounts that aren't age verified, may not give you carte blanche to do whatever you want.

Whether or not such exploits carry consequences because it almost certainly falls under a SSA violation, would be at Valve's discretion.

Only workaround is to get your explicit adult content else where.

This is effectively censorship by Steam, denying adult content to UK adults who only have a debit card and in some cases may not be eligible for a credit card. Given the issues that Steam had so recently with VISA and MasterCard leading to the de-listing of many, many games which, while edgy and not my choice, were nevertheless legal, it is beyond ironic that they are now blocking UK adults who can prove they are adults through other means from accessing adult games UNLESS they have credit cards with providers including VISA and MasterCard...

I rallied to Steam's cause when the backdoor restrictions were imposed by the payment providers but that was naive as they seem to be no different themselves. HOW DIFFICULT WOULD I(T BE TO IMPLEMENT A DIFFERENT AGE VERIFICATION METHOD FOR UK DEBIT CARD HOL:DERS. This would translate into more revenue , surely.

It's censorship by your government. Companies have to comply with laws or stop operating in those countries altogether, which would probably make you more angry.

I'm sure I read somewhere a few weeks ago that Valve is looking into different options, so one of those crappy face/age verification services will probably end up part of the Steam app. I think a lot of platforms scrambled to hastily implement *something* AFTER they realised they might be breaking the law. Which probably explains why no verification existed for a few weeks after the Online Safety Act was enacted.

Originally posted by empiricist:

This is effectively censorship by Steam, denying adult content to UK adults who only have a debit card and in some cases may not be eligible for a credit card. Given the issues that Steam had so recently with VISA and MasterCard leading to the de-listing of many, many games which, while edgy and not my choice, were nevertheless legal, it is beyond ironic that they are now blocking UK adults who can prove they are adults through other means from accessing adult games UNLESS they have credit cards with providers including VISA and MasterCard...

Maybe in the story you've weaved. Try this one on:

Steam already accepts credit cards, and credit cards are a valid form of age verification. Just having one attached to your account is sufficient to meet the requirements. Which means adding a single boolean flag to determine if an account is age verified. It's extremely low hanging fruit. But if that wasn't an option then all UK adults would likely be blocked from age restricted content. Just like how Germans are.

IE If credit cards weren't an option, you'd likely have zero options.

Originally posted by empiricist:

I rallied to Steam's cause when the backdoor restrictions were imposed by the payment providers but that was naive as they seem to be no different themselves. HOW DIFFICULT WOULD I(T BE TO IMPLEMENT A DIFFERENT AGE VERIFICATION METHOD FOR UK DEBIT CARD HOL:DERS. This would translate into more revenue , surely.

Based on what Valve has done so far for UK and German users, it kinda just seems like they're not very interested in the burdens of more elaborate age verification. And either it goes against their values, or the revenue from age restricted games isn't so much to motivate action or commit the time and effort.

Why people don't seem to entertain the idea that Valve has made informed decisions about their business and that no options for age verification is a valid implementation, well it's not beyond me, but it does seem narrow minded.

Originally posted by nullable:

Why people don't seem to entertain the idea that Valve has made informed decisions about their business and that no options for age verification is a valid implementation, well it's not beyond me, but it does seem narrow minded.

Because people don't seem to understand the world does not resolve around them as an individual. Therefore anything that doesn't work they want it to becomes a personal attack, rather than a decision that was actively taken based on other reasons. Mind you Valve doesn't help itself with it's opacity and complete lack of feedback around the choices it makes.