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Steam Age Check Locks Out 65% of Adult Australians [2026] (tech-insider.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago by 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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[–] 8 points 1 week ago (1 child)

I've tested this myself with these results

  • MA15 is ok
  • Reinstallation of Witcher 3 is ok
  • MasterCard and Visa both do not work.
  • Visiting the Steam store page for Witcher 3 is blocked for me.

When I contacted Steam support they said specifically only "credit cards" being on file is supported. However, they indicated they would be adding additional verification methods in the future.

If people are finding success with specific debit banks and debit cards, I'm more likely to believe that is an unintended bug or something strange going on than an intended feature.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago

    The bug thing/half-arsed implementation seems very likely. Someone also mentioned something about different banks using different age verification levels/systems, and that potentially having something to do with it. Too many guesses involved though.

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