Valve now requires Steam users in the UK to verify their age in order to access mature content on the platform.
As reported by VGC, the age verification feature went into effect on August 29, 2025, in compliance with the UK Online Safety Act (OSA), and requires Steam users to “explicitly opt-in” if they wish to access Steam store pages for mature content games or their associated community hubs.
In a Steam Support blog post, Valve explained that this opt-in process requires users to verify their age by logging into their Steam account and adding a valid credit card to their account.
“If the process is successful, you can now choose to add previously unavailable mature content types on the Store Preferences page,” Valve said in the post.
According to Valve, the Steam account is then considered “age verified” for as long as the credit card is stored on it.
“In the UK, Ofcom is the independent regulator for online safety,” Valve explained in its post. “Ofcom’s guidance on the OSA states that one highly effective age assurance measure is credit card checks.
“This is because, in the UK, an individual must be at least 18 years of age to obtain a credit card, therefore credit card issuers are obliged to verify the age of an applicant before providing them with a credit card.
“Having the credit card stored as a payment method acts as an additional deterrent against circumventing age verification by sharing a single Steam user account among multiple persons.”
The UK Online Safety Act came into effect on July 25, 2025, and states that “services who have users in the UK need to be safe by design, and have a higher standard of protection for children than adults, whilst providing transparency and accountability in relation to those services.”
Video game companies are legally obliged to comply with these new laws, meaning Valve isn’t the only one having to implement age verification for its UK users.
In July, Microsoft began rolling out age verification to UK Xbox users. Age verification for UK Xbox users is currently optional, but starting early 2026, it will be required for those with adult accounts to access the platform’s full range of social features, including voice chat and messaging.
