Last year, the Australian organization Collective Shout became \"famous\" for reaching payment systems and triggering a wave of removals of adult games from Steam and other digital services. In 2026, Valve's store once again drew attention in Australia — this time from officials.
The eSafety organization sent a transparency notice to several companies, including Steam (Valve).
Dangerous communities were found on Steam, and now Valve must explain how it \"detects, prevents, and responds to such violations.\"
eSafety reminded that Australian codes and standards for combating illegal materials require online services to implement \"systems and processes to protect Australians from illegal and prohibited materials.\"
The regulator noted that it has tools to enforce compliance — the company may begin to be fined a large amount every day until all requirements are met:
Compliance with the requirements of the transparency reporting notice is mandatory. If companies do not respond, eSafety has a range of enforcement measures, including the ability to seek financial penalties of up to $825,000 per day. [approximately 590 thousand US dollars]
Officials' questions were not directed only at Steam (Valve); a similar notice was sent to the creators of Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite — criminals establish contact with victims through these services and games, and then move further communication to messengers.