For those of us in the UK, the Online Safety Act is now a reality. Services we use daily will require age verification for access to some, or all of its content, all in the name of ensuring underage users don’t see stuff they’re not supposed to.
That includes gaming platforms such as Xbox and Steam. In the case of the latter, its owner, Valve, has now outlined how it intends to comply with the new law (via GamingOnLinux). And it’s surprisingly sensible and uncontroversial.
Here’s the breakdown from the official notice on the Steam Support page:
“In order to access Steam store pages for mature content games as well as their associated community hubs, you need to be logged into an active user account and explicitly opt-in through the account settings page.
For UK users, this opt-in process requires age verification. Your UK Steam user account is considered age verified for as long as a valid credit card is stored on the account.”
Age verification has drawn a lot of criticism since becoming law. Not necessarily because of the actual verifying you’re an adult part, but in many cases, the methods being used.
Valve is doing something that isn’t out of the ordinary, that doesn’t require sharing sensitive information with third-parties, or scanning your biometrics, or any of that.
Steam will simply verify the credit card with a zero charge transaction to ensure it’s legitimate. You can’t have a credit card under the age of 18, so it works. It will use the existing Steam payment system, which many of us already have a card attached to for buying games.
What isn’t clear is how you could verify your age if you don’t have a credit card. Valve says its methods are “data minimal” so I’m not sure if, say, a Visa debit card attached to your bank account would also work.
Valve states that this method is to preserve as much of its user privacy as possible while completing the necessary steps to comply with UK law. We may not have to like it, but it’s how things are now, and this is at least arguably the best way to get it done.
This is in contrast to, say, Xbox, which admittedly has this same method, but is promoting something very different. I, like other British customers, have recently received our emails notifying us of the requirement to verify our age.
Xbox has partnered with third-party firm Yoti as its method of age verification, as shown in the image above. There are, though, other methods that include a Valve-like credit card check, or checking with your mobile provider.
I’m more fine with either of the last two, but they’re somewhat hidden, and they still use Yoti, not Microsoft’s own systems. When I loaded the page, I couldn’t even see the bottom two choices, and it was only noticing the small text at the top said “4 options” I even thought to look.
This is the exact text from the email:
“We’re partnering with Yoti, a trusted, third-party identity verification provider, to give you a menu of options for how to securely verify your age. Starting early next year, age verification will be required for you to retain full access to social features on Xbox, such as voice or text communication and game invites. Until verification is completed, access to these features will be limited to friends only.”
You open the page, and you’re literally screamed at to scan your face or submit your ID. To a company you have no dealings with, no knowledge of what they actually do with it, nothing.
I did the phone provider option, since I already have my number attached to my Microsoft Account anyway. I’d definitely encourage you to do the same, or use the credit card check. This, still, goes through Yoti, though, but I figured it’s the least invasive option.
These two options should be the only options, just as Valve is doing with its checks. I’m disappointed that Xbox is pushing a method that involves handing over identifying data to a company you know nothing about.
