Steam prohibits children under 13 from creating accounts and states it will not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. However, there is no active age verification mechanism described in the agreement.
Minors under 13 are prohibited from using Steam, but the agreement relies on self-attestation rather than verified age gating, which may inadequately protect children and creates regulatory risk for Valve under COPPA.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle COPPA — Age Restriction and Parental Consent and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →The agreement's age restriction relies on self-reported age during registration with no described verification mechanism, creating COPPA compliance risk if children under 13 access the platform.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly engages COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) 15 U.S.C. §6501 et seq. and 16 CFR Part 312, enforced by the FTC. COPPA requires operators of online services directed to children or with actual knowledge of child users to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. EU GDPR Art. 8 (children's consent; age threshold varies by member state from 13-16) and UK GDPR/Children's Code (ICO) also apply. The FTC is the primary US enforcement authority; national DPAs for EU; ICO for UK.
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