I’ve been following the recent talks about mandatory age verification for digital platforms, including Steam, and honestly I think it’s a dangerous path.
• Privacy Risks: Age verification usually means handing over sensitive personal data (ID scans, phone numbers, payment details). Once this data is stored, it becomes a target. Data breaches happen all the time, and if one of these databases gets leaked, the consequences are irreversible.
• Security Concerns: The more platforms require ID verification, the more copies of your private information exist in different places. Each of those is a potential weak point. We’ve already seen companies with “state of the art security” get hacked.
• Unnecessary for Gamers: I legally own all my games and I make sure to preserve them DRM-free (both from GOG and Steam, to back up my library). My games are safe, my data is safe. But if age verification becomes mandatory, suddenly I’d be forced to give up private info just to access what I already own.

This feels less like “protecting minors” and more like creeping surveillance and data harvesting.

I will never hand over my personal data for this. And if the first big breaches happen, they’ll be forced to find another solution anyway.

What do you all think? Do you trust these systems with your ID and personal data, or do you see the same risks I do?