Australian advocacy group Collective Shout has launched a campaign targeting adult games on Steam by pressuring payment processors like Visa and Mastercard to cut off services to the platform. The group wants certain games removed even if they’re completely legal.
During a recent interview with TweakTown, a Collective Shout representative made their position clear: “Legality is not the defining factor.” They also claimed that people defending games with sexual violence content are “abusers in real life.”
The strategy focuses on financial pressure rather than legal action. Collective Shout published an open letter urging major payment companies including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, and Stripe to enforce their policies against platforms hosting what the group calls harmful content. The letter has support from organizations in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
This approach has worked before. Visa and Mastercard suspended services to Pornhub in 2020 over content concerns. OnlyFans nearly banned explicit content in 2021 due to banking pressure before reversing course after negotiations. Payment processors have become the unofficial gatekeepers of online content, often enforcing stricter rules than actual laws require.
Collective Shout has a history of successful campaigns against gaming. In 2014, they convinced Australian retailers Target and Kmart to pull Grand Theft Auto V from their shelves. Now they’re taking aim at digital storefronts where physical retail pressure doesn’t work.
Steam currently allows adult content with age gates and content warnings. Users must specifically enable an “Adults Only” preference to see certain games. The platform bans sexual content involving minors or characters who appear underage, but otherwise maintains a relatively open policy compared to competitors.
When money talks louder than laws
The power of payment processors comes from their near-monopoly status. With only a handful of major card networks and payment gateways controlling most online transactions, their policies effectively become law for digital platforms. A storefront can’t survive without accepting credit cards, making payment companies more powerful than many government regulators.
Valve hasn’t responded publicly to this latest campaign. The company rarely comments on policy matters unless making actual changes. For now, Steam’s adult content remains available to users who opt in, but the pressure from payment processors could force changes regardless of what’s legal in any particular country.
