Support NeoGAF

[The Cockatrice]

Makes sense since most of the the far right are religious purists. You can go on any trash youtuber channel and see how they hate onlyfans, porn, etc. In a way they are similar to the far left who hate sexualizing women.

 

[Last Hearth]

You shouldn't consider only the parts where they talk about Section 230. They're also against pornography in general, which is highly relevant to the topic.

Age verification sounds fine, on paper, until you realize how intrusive it is and how various websites prefer to block entire countries or states rather than pay to set it up. The idea is to make complex and aggressive systems that, while technically allowing adults to access content, will make it increasingly difficult to comply with the requirements.

That also directly ties into what Vought said on tape in a private setting. Besides, weakening Section 230 would also be used against platforms that host sexual content.

Well here's the thing, given how serious letting minors accessing adult content is (being a parent of a 3 year old, this is going to be a major concern for me the next 15 years), I don't think it's too much burden to ask websites to verify. If they don't want to perform this simple act of community responsibility, then maybe they shouldn't be carrying adult material. Would that mean there will be less porn on the internal overall, sure. But would there be a dearth of porn on the internet, hardly, I think if 50% of the porn on the internet is gone tomorrow, there will still be more than enough porn available for any adult to consume in a hundred lifetimes. I believe in freedom, but also that it should be exercised responsibly, to me it's no different than the safety requirements government put on consumer products, like there are laws on the amount of lead in the paint on children's toys. Am I going to be sympathetic to certain toy makers who complain that doing so is going to be too expensive and they will just stop making toys for children altogether, no, I'm going to say if you aren't willing to do that to protect my child from lead, then you shouldn't be making children's toy, and let those who are willing to do that make them.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Food addicts don't end up climbing clock towers with automatic rifles.

That's because they would die with a heart attack before reaching the top.

 

[Topher]

Personally think the issue is way above any of our paygrades.

 

[Madonis]

Well here's the thing, given how serious letting minors accessing adult content is (being a parent of a 3 year old, this is going to be a major concern for me the next 15 years), I don't think it's too much burden to ask websites to verify. If they don't want to perform this simple act of community responsibility, then maybe they shouldn't be carrying adult material. Would that mean there will be less porn on the internal overall, sure. But would there be a dearth of porn on the internet, hardly, I think if 50% of the porn is the internet is gone tomorrow, there will still be more than enough porn available for any adult to consume in a hundred lifetimes. I believe in freedom, but also that it should be exercised responsibly, to me it's no different than the safety requirements government put on consumer products, like there are laws on the amount of lead in the paint on children's toys. Am I going to be sympathetic to certain toy makers who complain that doing so is going to be too expensive and they will just stop making toys for children altogether, no, I'm going to say if you aren't willing to do that to protect my child from lead, then you shouldn't be making children's toy, and let those who are willing to do that make them.

You're free to make your own parenting decisions and choices, but perhaps you should not impose them on the rest of society as an obligation.

I believe that more people should remember we were all teenagers once upon a time. Teens will look for nudity, porn and sex (in any order), sooner or later, regardless of when their parents think they are formally "ready" for them. Almost nobody waits until the age of 18 to start the search for those things. It was a little more difficult before the so-called worldwide web, but the fact is prohibitions are ultimately both full of loopholes and, in practice, worse than parents allowing frank, transparent conversations about such topics.

It's better to remove all the stigma and shame associated with such things, arguably even relatively early on, rather than expecting the Internet to "protect" your children until they are magically transformed by adulthood. Many abusive practices and censorship policies have been implemented in the name of protecting children, so I am rather skeptical of such proactive measures for various reasons.

To say nothing of the fact that ignorant children are more vulnerable to being exploited by perverted priests, pastors and other predators. IMO, that's the real danger.

 

[SEGAvangelist]

Project 2025. LOL.

I thought they were done with this crap.

 

[RCX]

Just to add a little balance here: both sides of the aisle in every western country are 100% on board with this kind of internet censorship.

I don't see it as a red/blue issue in the US or anywhere else. It's a government + elites vs everyone else issue.

 

[Boo Who?]

Yeah man, just having a grand time watching people equate porn to people climbing clock towers and shooting people. Definitely didn't have that on my Wednesday bingo card.

Totally porn that does this. Not Big Pharma and mental illness or PsyOps. Totally porn.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Makes sense since most of the the far right are religious purists. You can go on any trash youtuber channel and see how they hate onlyfans, porn, etc. In a way they are similar to the far left who hate sexualizing women.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Totally porn that does this. Not Big Pharma and mental illness or PsyOps. Totally porn.

Ru-oh, PsyOps time.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

thegamer is entirely run by lgbt activists so I'm not surprised they'd come up with such nonsense. They're probably upset their furry porn got age verification gated.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Meanwhile, another day in the timeline where the Epstein list does NOT exist.

Imagine giving any credit or the benefit of doubt to anyone from the establishment.

 

[simpatico]

I still haven't seen a slippery sloper make a coherent case that this is coming for regular games.

 

[Generic]

Steam would be liable only if illegal content gets published, not uploaded, right? They'd have to implement a verification process for uploaded content, and if nothing illegal slips through their net, they're golden - right? It'd be nonsensical to make a company responsible for the shit people upload. This is an important distinction. If you don't have this, any kind of website form would make running the site legally impossible.

The law is very precise and clear (for the most part) when it comes to what's allowed in terms of adult content, and what not. It'd pose no problems for say Rockstar to continue making adult themed games. Just like it already is in film, literature and other forms of art right now. I don't see a problem here.

These initiatives are probably meant to put pressure on companies like MindGeek, which have proven to not care about the legality of the content they're hosting. This is not about censorship but about straight up crimes on video being published by these people. I can't see why anyone wouldn't want this practice to stop, because obviously what we're doing now isn't working, and it's causing real harm to human beings all around the world.

I don't like censorship and moral policing just as much as the next guy, but when bad actors can hide behind the constant cries for "censorship" and the like so easily, there's clearly something wrong. I swear some people in the gaming community are protecting real criminals with their hysterical behaviour. And yes I do understand that for historical reasons, you Americans are very sensitive to that topic, and that's not a bad thing. But let me tell you here in Europe we don't use funny names like Karen for this, because here actual, real state censorship was a thing, and in the collective memory of Europeans it is linked to totalitarian regimes that caused the death of millions of people.

Isn't Europe the place where people are arrested for comments on Facebook?

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Isn't Europe the place where people are arrested for comments on Facebook?

Yes, I think the UK has such cases. Many countries here have a censorship issue rn.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Makes sense since most of the the far right are religious purists. You can go on any trash youtuber channel and see how they hate onlyfans, porn, etc. In a way they are similar to the far left who hate sexualizing women.

I mean, this is correct. The extremes are oddly two sides of the same coin. Normal people over here like wtf.

As for trying to blame this on one side or the other for political clout though.

Not to you, but rather, the gamer.

 

[Wildebeest]

As people don't want to say outright the facts of the matter are that Collective Shout is an Australian conservative Christian activist group and many of the people backing the current US administration are Christian nationalists who have a more radical position if anything. As for if all pornography should be banned or not so Christ knows which people should be saved when the rapture happens, I will stay politically neutral.

 

[ecosse_011172]

Isn't Europe the place where people are arrested for comments on Facebook?

No, that's American airports you're thinking of, easy mistake to make.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

As people don't want to say outright the facts of the matter are that Collective Shout is an Australian conservative Christian activist group and many of the people backing the current US administration are Christian nationalists who have a more radical position if anything. As for if all pornography should be banned or not so Christ knows which people should be saved when the rapture happens, I will stay politically neutral.

back in my day, we always kept porn out of schools . . . and that's not the same as banning.

 

[Wildebeest]

back in my day, we always kept porn out of schools . . . and that's not the same as banning.

Okay, but that isn't their ideal position. They think it should just be criminalized.

 

[Randall365]

Yes, I think the UK has such cases. Many countries here have a censorship issue rn.

It's not really a censorship issue - most countries have laws against inciting people to riot or commit violence on the internet - even the US:

• 18 U.S. Code § 2101: makes it illegal to use facilities of interstate commerce—including the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television—to incite or participate in a riot.

If I went on Facebook and said I hated Trump or Starmer - or the government in general - and got arrested, that would be censorship. If I went on Facebook try to get a gang people to join me and go round and burn their house to the ground, that's a crime.

That's where it is tricky for Steam and why they should obviously take an overly-cautious attitude to the games they sell - yet certain people say they are part of some big conspiracy for taking down a game where you can commit incest. Nonsense - they are just trying to avoid getting in shit so they can keep making money.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

It's not really a censorship issue - most countries have laws against inciting people to riot or commit violence on the internet - even the US:

• 18 U.S. Code § 2101: makes it illegal to use facilities of interstate commerce—including the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television—to incite or participate in a riot.

If I went on Facebook and said I hated Trump or Starmer - or the government in general - and got arrested, that would be censorship. If I went on Facebook try to get a gang people to join me and go round and burn their house to the ground, that's a crime.

That's where it is tricky for Steam and why they should obviously take an overly-cautious attitude to the games they sell - yet certain people say they are part of some big conspiracy for taking down a game where you can commit incest. Nonsense - they are just trying to avoid getting in shit so they can keep making money.

True. I heard the UK just arrested some guy that shouted "I love bacon" though, cause it's offensive to Muslims apparently.

 

[Randall365]

True. I heard the UK just arrested some guy that shouted "I love bacon" though, cause it's offensive to Muslims apparently.

I think there is a video on social media of someone being led away by police officers who says "we love bacon" at a protest, but you cannot tell what he did before they started filming. If they geninely arrested him for saying "we love bacon", I think it would be in the news by now, aside from just referred to by batshit columnists like Isabel Oakeshot. Still who knows, it is a single police officer who arrests someone, not the UK state and he could have made a mistake or had any number of reasons to do so.

 

[Wildebeest]

See that's where you gotta take off the lib tinfoil hat. No one in the US at least has ever claimed to want to do that. At least not those in power.

Collective shout might have a softer sounding position but Project 2025 says that it should not be protected by the 1st amendment and should be banned and people making it should be criminally prosecuted.

 

[Fake]

Makes sense since most of the the far right are religious purists. You can go on any trash youtuber channel and see how they hate onlyfans, porn, etc. In a way they are similar to the far left who hate sexualizing women.

They both deserve each other to be honest. Bunch of hypocrits sob trying to tell what people can do, can watch or can play game.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Makes sense since most of the the far right are religious purists. You can go on any trash youtuber channel and see how they hate onlyfans, porn, etc. In a way they are similar to the far left who hate sexualizing women.

You don't' think women going back to prostitution to make a living is a problem? Most of these women just ruin job prospects elsewhere, make little on the site, and have their relatives see them naked.
It's not religious purism to not want kids sexualized.

 

[Randall365]

Seriously though, I love video game tits as much as anyone - Leisure Suit Larry, Lula, that God of War 3 scene - I loved all those games back in the day, but even I had to turn off the adult sexual content on the Steam store because it was just getting too much - every other game was a sex simulator of some kind.

Do we not think it just went a bit far and things are being reigned in? It doesn't mean that GTA VI is getting banned. Personally I think that Steam are delighted that they can blame this on payment processors - they clean up their store and don't get any flak for "censoring".

 

[Wildebeest]

Trump hasn't even read Project 2025. No one on the right even talks about it. It's a boogieman for the left to harp on, that's about it.

Factually doesn't matter if any normal people have read it or not. It is an influential document written to shape policy for the republican party that many of them have read or signed on to.

 

[ecosse_011172]

You don't' think women going back to prostitution to make a living is a problem? Most of these women just ruin job prospects elsewhere, make little on the site, and have their relatives see them naked.
It's not religious purism to not want kids sexualized.

"going back to prostitution to make a living"

What are you talking about?
It's not for you to decide whether a woman can make some cash titillating online.

 

[NickFire]

The sky is definitely falling this time right? like for real this time?

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Factually doesn't matter if any normal people have read it or not. It is an influential document written to shape policy for the republican party that many of them have read or signed on to.

I'm actually surprised Trump isn't about 80% aligned with it. 40% sounds too low to me.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

It's not really a censorship issue - most countries have laws against inciting people to riot or commit violence on the internet - even the US:

• 18 U.S. Code § 2101: makes it illegal to use facilities of interstate commerce—including the mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, or television—to incite or participate in a riot.

If I went on Facebook and said I hated Trump or Starmer - or the government in general - and got arrested, that would be censorship. If I went on Facebook try to get a gang people to join me and go round and burn their house to the ground, that's a crime.

That's where it is tricky for Steam and why they should obviously take an overly-cautious attitude to the games they sell - yet certain people say they are part of some big conspiracy for taking down a game where you can commit incest. Nonsense - they are just trying to avoid getting in shit so they can keep making money.

In Germany, some guy got his home searched and computer confiscated by the police because he made lighthearted fun of a politician.

 

[The Cockatrice]

You don't' think women going back to prostitution to make a living is a problem? Most of these women just ruin job prospects elsewhere, make little on the site, and have their relatives see them naked.
It's not religious purism to not want kids sexualized.

You blame women for swindling idiots or the idiots who pay for what they can find for free? Sorry brother, both parties are to blame for the rise of onlyfans but more so men than women. As long as theyre adults they can do whatever the fuck they want. The only issue is when adults force kids to do things they do not want such as cutting their balls - far left, or parents beating their kids to death for wanting to act differently - far right.

 

[Zacfoldor]

You blame women for swindling idiots or the idiots who pay for what they can find for free? Sorry brother, both parties are to blame for the rise of onlyfans but more so men than women. As long as theyre adults they can do whatever the fuck they want. The only issue is when adults force kids to do things they do not want such as cutting their balls - far left, or parents beating their kids to death for wanting to act differently - far right.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

You blame women for swindling idiots or the idiots who pay for what they can find for free? Sorry brother, both parties are to blame for the rise of onlyfans but more so men than women. As long as theyre adults they can do whatever the fuck they want. The only issue is when adults force kids to do things they do not want such as cutting their balls - far left, or parents beating their kids to death for wanting to act differently - far right.

I wasn't letting the guys off the hook. But a lot of these women just see the wildly successful ones and think they'll get rich, just to end up with their cousins jerkin to their OF page, and their page costing them jobs.
Adults can do what they want, yes. But more should be done to teach them the realities and consequences of going that route.

 

[Clear]

You guys trusting an article from "thegamer" to be politically neutral and honest ?

Weren't they the ones saying that being apolitical and just about the games *is* a political stance (and not the right one, natch).

 

[The Cockatrice]

But a lot of these women

Thats on them. No one else to blame for their lack of common sense. Well maybe education, parenting, etc. but you get the point.

 

[Hudo]

So is this Project 2025 actually a serious thing? I thought this is just another think tank piece of shit that the Heritage Foundation is famous for shitting out. But it's not the first time that the Heritage Foundation has shat out bullshit. That's their business model. So what makes this different and dangerous? Because retards like Peter Thiel or Hegseth are fanboys of it?

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Meanwhile churches can't stop raping kids.

 

[lmimmfn]

From reddit, lol, i wouldn't expect anything else.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Thats on them. No one else to blame for their lack of common sense. Well maybe education, parenting, etc. but you get the point.

Yea, it's just really bad now, cause all these 6's think they're a 10 from all the women to women glazing going on these days.
If it was just the 9's and 10's going for it, it would make more sense.

 

[Lionel Richie]

If there's even a slight chance these games can cause adolescent adult media addiction, which in turn could spiral further into even worse things, like eventually causing men to wear dresses, then you can just fuck right off with that train of thought. Ban this shit. There's no way to protest against this without coming off as a complete creep.

None of this would have happened if very smart professional people haven't analysed societal patterns and have concluded it's urgent and necessary. Think, man.

The onus should 1000% be on stores to manage what they sell and to who they sell, you can't just sit on your ass and collect revenue, that's not how this works, fuck that.

I'm pretty sure adult media isn't causing men to wear dresses, but enjoy being a lunatic I guess.

 

[graywolf323]

You guys trusting an article from "thegamer" to be politically neutral and honest ?

Weren't they the ones saying that being apolitical and just about the games *is* a political stance (and not the right one, natch).

yep, they seem to be trying to pick up the torch from Kotaku and other far left crazy sites that want to use video games to push their chosen propaganda

So is this Project 2025 actually a serious thing? I thought this is just another think tank piece of shit that the Heritage Foundation is famous for shitting out. But it's not the first time that the Heritage Foundation has shat out bullshit. That's their business model. So what makes this different and dangerous? Because retards like Peter Thiel or Hegseth are fanboys of it?

it's just fear porn, same way it was all over the media during the 2024 election

 

[Last Hearth]

You're free to make your own parenting decisions and choices, but perhaps you should not impose them on the rest of society as an obligation.

I believe that more people should remember we were all teenagers once upon a time. Teens will look for nudity, porn and sex (in any order), sooner or later, regardless of when their parents think they are formally "ready" for them. Almost nobody waits until the age of 18 to start the search for those things. It was a little more difficult before the so-called worldwide web, but the fact is prohibitions are ultimately both full of loopholes and, in practice, worse than parents allowing frank, transparent conversations about such topics.

It's better to remove all the stigma and shame associated with such things, arguably even relatively early on, rather than expecting the Internet to "protect" your children until they are magically transformed by adulthood. Many abusive practices and censorship policies have been implemented in the name of protecting children, so I am rather skeptical of such proactive measures for various reasons.

To say nothing of the fact that ignorant children are more vulnerable to being exploited by perverted priests, pastors and other predators. IMO, that's the real danger.

Your entire response is incoherent. Yes I remember being a teenager, but having bad impulse control and poor judgment isn't an argument to leave things alone, it's precise the reason they sometimes need to have some fences around them so they don't do themselves damage they aren't aware of. This is why we ask retailer to not sell porn to them without verification of age, heck we also ask them to not sell alcohol, cigarettes, and other things without verification. If those are all acceptable I don't see why asking porn sites to do the same thing is such an unreasonable burden on them.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Have doubts this is any actual root of the problem, because I think various groups around the world want to exert influence to sanitize or Karen-ify the internet in general.

There is no one man with a big plan, it's various people that want to limit access to content they personally dislike, companies that want sanitized content that will generate less controversy that hurts their bottom line, and governments that will use protection as the excuse to be able to track more of what the populace does/says.

At least journalists have less to no power/influence anymore, so this article will do nothing, and I have no reason to believe it when the person writing it conveniently gets to blame it all on the political faction they hate.

This right here. Of course there are some people on the right and left who want pron banned, but the same people writing this article, especially that site were all for censorship and pro cheering on uglifying female characters. If its just pedo shit ban away, it shouldnt be allowed anyway.

 

[DryvBy]

Imagine in 2025 being worried about Project 2025 and believing The Gamer and redditors as your source. lol

 

[Shadowstar39]

Your entire response is incoherent. Yes I remember being a teenager, but having bad impulse control and poor judgment isn't an argument to leave things alone, it's precise the reason they sometimes need to have some fences around them so they don't do themselves damage they aren't aware of. This is why we ask retailer to not sell porn to them without verification of age, heck we also ask them to not sell alcohol, cigarettes, and other things without verification. If those are all acceptable I don't see why asking porn sites to do the same thing is such an unreasonable burden on them.

This. Imagine taking stigma away from looking at porn for kids.... kids would be opening watching it in class or with their buds. Serious sexual deviancy. Yeah I remeber being a kid/teenager too, but I also remember it wasn't that easy. It took 1 hour to download a naked lady pic from a bbs on a 2400 baud modem. (you usually saved those 240p 256 color images on a floppy, lol). Before that you had the stash of magazines you found in the woods, or the one you stole from your friend's dad's work breakroom and kept under your matress. Watching scrambled playboy channel and seeing them breasts show up on screen. Then getting that free week.... that they actually showed the channel without the lines fuzzing it (that was something else...lol)... Watching your neighbor's older sister and friends at their pool with your binoculars...oh I think i said too much.

Maybe that was just me that was horn dog, but i doubt it. Thing is having to jump through hoops and all that made it more of a thrill. What thrill is there if it is easy to get. It really shouldn't be. There is a reason every country's birthrate is lower after the advent of the internet. I am sure porn is part of that. Why try to get in a relationship and get laid if you can stroke one out to porn hub any time of day on your personal hand held window to it.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Somehow the worst thing about this, is them (badly) censoring the word pornography; shows how awful this content moderation shit is getting.

 

[Madonis]

Your entire response is incoherent. Yes I remember being a teenager, but having bad impulse control and poor judgment isn't an argument to leave things alone, it's precise the reason they sometimes need to have some fences around them so they don't do themselves damage they aren't aware of. This is why we ask retailer to not sell porn to them without verification of age, heck we also ask them to not sell alcohol, cigarettes, and other things without verification. If those are all acceptable I don't see why asking porn sites to do the same thing is such an unreasonable burden on them.

Yes, but for best results you should build those fences around your own home and adequate to your own situation. Parents lazily expecting the government to do their job by universally imposing widespread age verification with cumbersome technical or financial requirements (and also potentially or actually exposing the personal data of adults in the process) is a sign of irresponsibility in my opinion. If it was a simple and easy form of verification, that would be different, but it isn't. It is meant to be cumbersome.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

"going back to prostitution to make a living"

What are you talking about?
It's not for you to decide whether a woman can make some cash titillating online.

I think we can all agree that "offering sexual services in exchange of an economic payment" is a valid definition for prostitution.

The problem isn't that women choose that path hoping to strike gold. That's as legit as every other option.

The problem is that prostitution is whited as "content creation" and MINORS are encouraged to go that route. That's rotten to the core, straight up evil. A society that normalizes that is morally bankrupt, in the ethical sense of the word.

This has zero correlation to the traditional porn magazines or movies, which feature professionals who don't interact with "customers". Sites like OF hook young girls using the ego boost as bait, knowing the impact of that in their psyque. Pure malice.