Hot on the heels of the recent enforcement of the British Online Safety Act, which is supposed to protect children online, gaming is now being targeted by Collective Shout, an Australian campaign group formed to stop sexploitation in video games. All well and good, up to a point. None of us condones the shameless exploitation of girls and women in whatever medium, but there’s a fine line between adult content and exploitation, not to mention subjectivity.
What Is Collective Shout?
Collective Shout is a grassroots movement challenging the objectification of women and sexualisation of girls in the media and popular culture. The group was formed in Sydney, Australia, in 2009 by Melinda Tankard Reist, a pro-life feminist and anti-pornography activist. Fast forward to July 2025, and as a result of an email sent to numerous payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal by the group, stemming in the main from a now-banned and controversial game, No Mercy, around 20,000 games have been delisted from storefronts such as Steam and Itch.io. So not only did payment processors cave to a minority of do-gooders, but so did several game storefronts like a line of dominoes. Visa is quoted as saying:
“If a transaction is legal, our policy is to process the transaction. We do not make moral judgments on legal purchases made by consumers.”
The Blame Game
Valve, the owner of Steam, is pointing the finger at the payment processors, while we have to wonder if those very same processors, Visa, Mastercard etc, are being 100% truthful in their responses. In fact, Steam has recently updated its policies, and one wonders if the tail is now wagging the dog:
Do OnlyFans, Youporn, and Pornhub fall under the same rules? All of a sudden, we must wonder who are the arbiters of taste?
Is the transaction legal? What does that even mean? One assumes that when buying a game on Steam, that game is legal. But now that several hundred have been delisted, one has to assume that those games were illegal. Furthermore, the three sites I mentioned above appear to be legal; therefore, will the likes of Visa and Mastercard still be processing payments through those sites?
Bear in mind that Collective Shout tried and failed to get Grand Theft Auto V banned, along with Detroit: Become Human, so they must collectively be rubbing their hands in glee at this very moment.
This entire episode has caused nothing but confusion in the entire gaming industry and beyond, but sadly is a sign of the times. As consumers, we have a choice, but to have that choice invigilated by others is a very slippery slope indeed.
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