The first part of the law is pretty clear and seems to support my idea.
(3) Bildträger, die nicht oder mit “Keine Jugendfreigabe” nach § 14 Abs. 2 von der obersten Landesbehörde oder einer Organisation der freiwilligen Selbstkontrolle im Rahmen des Verfahrens nach § 14 Abs. 6 oder nach § 14 Abs. 7 vom Anbieter gekennzeichnet sind, dürfen
einem Kind oder einer jugendlichen Person nicht angeboten, überlassen oder sonst zugänglich gemacht werden,
It says that you’re not allowed to show or sell the material to children if it doesn’t have a label.
The 2nd part is worded more difficult
nicht im Einzelhandel außerhalb von Geschäftsräumen, in Kiosken oder anderen Verkaufsstellen, die Kunden nicht zu betreten pflegen, oder im Versandhandel angeboten oder überlassen werden.
It says it isn’t allowed to sell them outside of stores like corner shops, mail orders and otherwise POS that people don’t enter. This might include Steam online services, but it just says “enter” and not “physically enter” which might give leeway that an account with password might technically fulfil that requirement, but then you would be fighting before a judge about the definition of entering a store.
It’s complicated as usual and I can see why Steam doesn’t want to rock the boat and end up having to require passports for signing up, rather sooner than later.
The should just default to 18+ if they don’t have a rating instead of taking them off the market.
Legally, they probably can’t.
I think you’re true for Germany.
The first part of the law is pretty clear and seems to support my idea.
It says that you’re not allowed to show or sell the material to children if it doesn’t have a label.
The 2nd part is worded more difficult
It says it isn’t allowed to sell them outside of stores like corner shops, mail orders and otherwise POS that people don’t enter. This might include Steam online services, but it just says “enter” and not “physically enter” which might give leeway that an account with password might technically fulfil that requirement, but then you would be fighting before a judge about the definition of entering a store.
It’s complicated as usual and I can see why Steam doesn’t want to rock the boat and end up having to require passports for signing up, rather sooner than later.