Mastercard has broken its silence after being thrust into the middle of a gaming culture war between anti-porn advocates and anti-censorship activists. While Valve previously laid blame for a recent purge of adult sex games from Steam at the feet of “payment processors and their related card networks and banks,” Mastercard released a statement on Friday denying any responsibility for a new wave of censorship that’s recently led some gamers to flood payment company call centers with complaints.

“Mastercard has not evaluated any game or required restrictions of any activity on game creator sites and platforms, contrary to media reports and allegations,” the company wrote in a statement published on its website on August 1. “Our payment network follows standards based on the rule of law. Put simply, we allow all lawful purchases on our network. At the same time, we require merchants to have appropriate controls to ensure Mastercard cards cannot be used for unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.”

Mastercard and Visa have been on the receiving end of an anti-game censorship backlash after anti-porn group Collective Shout claimed victory in a write-in campaign targeting payment company CEOs for allegedly profiting off of what the group called “violent pornography.” Critics of the move recently told Kotaku they’ve been calling the companies multiple times over the last week to complain about Valve and indie game shop itch.io purging seemingly legal NSFW content from their platforms over fears of reportedly being dropped by Mastercard and others.

To be clear, Mastercard doesn’t say it hasn’t been involved at all, just that it’s gone no further than enforcing its existing guidelines against “unlawful purchases, including illegal adult content.” But a renewed crackdown on those requirements, which can be vague in practice, has resulted in Valve and itch.io delisting anywhere from hundreds to thousands of games they worry could get it in trouble with Mastercard and others.

Earlier today, itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran announced the indie storefront is bringing back delisted NSFW games that were free, but is “still in ongoing discussions with payment processors” over paid content which will be reintroduced “slowly.” It could suggest the recent call-in campaigns castigating the credit card companies have changed the calculus for the companies involved. It certainly sounds like Mastercard regrets ever being dragged into this fight, even though it’s the one in the driver’s seat.

Updated: 8/1/2025 4:18 p.m. ET: In a statement to Kotaku, a spokesperson for Valve said that while Mastercard did not communicate with it directly, concerns did come through payment processor and banking intermediaries. They said payment processors rejected Valve’s current guidelines for moderating illegal content on Steam, citing Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7.

“Mastercard did not communicate with Valve directly, despite our request to do so,” Valve’s statement sent over email to Kotaku reads. “Mastercard communicated with payment processors and their acquiring banks.  Payment processors communicated this with Valve, and we replied by outlining Steam’s policy since 2018 of attempting to distribute games that are legal for distribution.  Payment processors rejected this, and specifically cited Mastercard’s Rule 5.12.7 and risk to the Mastercard brand.”

Rule 5.12.7 states, “A Merchant must not submit to its Acquirer, and a Customer must not submit to the Interchange System, any Transaction that is illegal, or in the sole discretion of the Corporation, may damage the goodwill of the Corporation or reflect negatively on the Marks.”

It goes on, “The sale of a product or service, including an image, which is patently offensive and lacks serious artistic value (such as, by way of example and not limitation, images of nonconsensual sexual behavior, sexual exploitation of a minor, nonconsensual mutilation of a person or body part, and bestiality), or any other material that the Corporation deems unacceptable to sell in connection with a Mark.”

Violations of rule 5.12.7 can result in fines, audits, or companies being dropped by the payment processors.

Source: Mastercard Denies Pressuring Steam To Censor ‘NSFW’ Games

[…]In a Tuesday update to the “Rules and Guidelines” section of Steam’s Onboarding Documentation, the company added a new rule prohibiting “Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or Internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.”

On its own, the new rule seems rather vague, with no details on which of the many kinds of “adult only content” would belong in the “certain” subset prohibited by these unnamed payment processors and ISPs. But the trackers over at SteamDB noticed that the publication of the new rule coincides with the removal of dozens of Steam games whose titles make reference to incest, along with a handful of sex games referencing “slave” or “prison” imagery.

Holding the keys to the bank

Valve isn’t alone in having de facto restrictions on content imposed on it by outside payment processors. In 2022, for instance, Visa suspended all payments to Pornhub’s ad network after the adult video site was accused of profiting from child sexual abuse materials. And PayPal has routinely disallowed payments to file-sharing sites and VPN providers over concerns surrounding piracy of copyrighted materials.

Since Valve’s 2018 announcement that Steam would allow any games that aren’t “illegal” or “outright trolling,” the company has shown some difficulty deciding where specifically to draw the line when it comes to adult content. Before this week, Valve’s rules prohibited games that feature explicit images of real people, adult content that isn’t labeled or age-gated, and content that is “patently offensive or intended to shock or disgust viewers.” The guidelines also prohibit “content that exploits children in any way,” a rule that seems to have affected some non-sexual games that feature school settings or characters in school uniforms.

This time, though, it seems Valve is being pressured to implement a new rule on in-game content by outside payment processors, rather than by its own interpretation of speech laws or acceptable social norms. And those outside companies have a lot of leverage here; avoiding third-party payment processors altogether is nearly impossible for a company like Valve, which stopped accepting Bitcoin as a payment option in 2017 due to the extreme volatility of the cryptocurrency’s value.[…]

Source: Steam cracks down on some sex games to appease payment processors – Ars Technica

Simply Elegant Glass has been selling hand-crafted sex toys on Etsy for nearly a decade. In that time, the shop has made over 7,000 sales and racked up more than 1,500 mostly five-star reviews. The Etsy shop — which offers glass dildos, anal plugs and other insertable items — drives the majority of the small business’ overall sales. But as of Monday July 29, the bulk of the shop’s catalog won’t be allowed on the marketplace anymore under Etsy’s new restrictions around sex toys.

The Adult Nudity and Sexual Content policy, which was quietly published at the end of June to the platform’s “House Rules,” states that “Etsy prohibits the sale of adult toys that are: inserted into the body; applied to the genitalia; designed for genitals to be inserted into them.” Among other things, it specifically forbids vendors from selling “dildos, vibrators, anal plugs, sex dolls and fleshlights.” The policy update, spotted first by Mashable, came in tandem with a community forum post by Etsy’s head of Trust & Safety, Alice Wu Paulus, who wrote that it was designed to reflect “evolving industry standards and best practices so that we can continue to keep our users safe.”

The note about the impending change said Etsy would, in the coming weeks, “communicate directly with sellers who may need to update their listing images to be compliant.” Enforcement would begin on July 29, it said, and non-compliant listings would be removed. But up to three weeks after the new policy was published online, sellers that spoke to Engadget said they were never contacted directly by Etsy. All of them found out about the ban through social media or other means.

[…]

Source: Artisanal sex toy businesses might not survive Etsy’s new seller policies

[…]

Twitch is putting a stop to its streamers’ shenanigans, though, and will officially prohibit “content that focuses on clothed intimate body parts such as the buttocks, groin, or breasts for extended periods of time” starting on March 29.

In a writeup on the trend, Kotaku explained that it all started when controversial streamer Morgpie projected her Fortnite gaming session on a closeup of her behind. After that, other streamers followed suit, overlaying their games on body parts both real and fictional, like anime thighs or anime boobs breasting boobily on screen while they’re playing. Now, boobs and butts streaming is out.

[…]

unclothed versions are also prohibited, as per Twitch’s policy that doesn’t allow users to broadcast or upload “content that contains depictions of real or fictional nudity, regardless of the medium used to create it.”

[…]

Source: Twitch bans streams overlaid on boobs and butts

Streaming platform Twitch recently announced a change to its sexual content policies that allowed some forms of fictionalized nudity—such as digital characters, sculptures, or drawings—as long as it was properly labeled. But now, just a few days later, it’s rolling back these changes and has apologized to the community.

Earlier this month, a new Twitch trend kicked off a firestorm of discourse and angry men yelling about women. Some women were streaming themselves using certain camera angles to appear topless. This new “topless meta”—like the hot tub meta from before—saw some women successfully trying out the trend on the streaming site, some getting banned, and a lot more dudes getting very angry about it all. In response, Twitch stepped in on December 13 and updated its sexual content policies, hoping to streamline some confusion and keep correctly labeled adult content off the homepage, but still on the site. It also officially allowed digital and fictionalized nudity. And two days later, Twitch seems to regret that specific choice.

In a post on December 15, Twitch’s CEO, Dan Clancy, admitted that its new policy changes allowing fictional nudity had led to a small uptick in people making content that broke the rules, but had also led to an influx of nudity that did follow the rules. The community response to all this new, totally-allowed artistic nudity was strong and not completely positive, leading to Twitch reverting its changes.

“So, effective today, we are rolling back the artistic nudity changes,” Clancy said. “Moving forward, depictions of real or fictional nudity won’t be allowed on Twitch, regardless of the medium. This restriction does not apply to Mature-rated games. You can find emote-specific standards for nudity and sexual content in the Emote Guidelines.”

Twitch suggested the company went “too far” when altering the nudity policy. It further explained that digital nudity presents a “unique challenge” due to AI-generated images which can look photorealistic but are still digital, fictionalized characters, technically.

While Twitch is rolling back the artistic nudity guidelines, the company did clarify that the other changes involving exotic dancing, body painting or content focused on certain clothed parts of the body weren’t being reverted.

“While I wish we would have predicted this outcome, part of our job is to make adjustments that serve the community,” Clancy said. “I apologize for the confusion that this update has caused.”

Source: Twitch Allows ‘Artistic Nudity’, Immediately Regrets It

What is wrong with you Americans?!

Sorry, it turns out it wasn’t that there was just something irresistible about you. Instead it seems that Baldur’s Gate 3 shipped with a bug that meant all the companions were way hornier than intended.

I thought something felt odd. Having played enough BioWare games over the years to know that all my companions would inevitably find me impossibly alluring at some point, I kind of shrugged when they began throwing themselves at me almost from the off. I figured Baldur’s Gate 3 developers Larian just wanted to get it out of the way, have Gale and Karlach and try to get in my pants sooner rather than later, but it certainly seemed hasty.

It turns out, as discovered by TheGamer, that this wasn’t meant to be the case. A bug slipped through that meant the requirements for companions to be unable to resist your illithid charms were set way too low.

Speaking to the game’s director and Larian boss-guy, Swen Vincke, TheGamer learned that “approval thresholds” were set too low, meaning the buddies you gather into your gang were ready to have special cuddles far sooner than planned. “That’s why they were so horny in the beginning,” explained Vincke.

This has already been fixed for a bunch of the game’s companions, but some still have their libido set to 11, awaiting cold showers in forthcoming patches. Gale was the most affected, as you probably noticed if you played the game, the thirsty wizard ready to make magic happen from the moment he meets you. Vincke told the site that he “wasn’t supposed to be, like, instantly there.”

Read More: 7 Horny Fantasy Games To Play After Baldur’s Gate 3

It’s interesting that Larian has stuck to this being a bug, not a feature, given that being ready to go isn’t exactly abnormal human/tiefling/drow behavior. “It was supposed to simulate how real relationships are,” Vincke told TheGamer, adding that behaving like this would be “problematic” in real life. Well…to some, certainly. But, you know.

It also seems less immediately untoward given Baldur’s Gate 3‘s laudable conversation options to make it clear to your NPC chums that sex isn’t something you’re interested in, even if you do want to roleplay being in love with them.

Even to my old fuddy-duddy British ways, it seems rather quaint, seeing sexual relationships as something only feasible after enough time and approval, as if an instant attraction is so unlikely or impossible. Of course, that’d be kind of weird if it were every companion, as was the case at launch. But this more conservative approach is already going to be in place for many companions for those starting the game today. Sorry, PS5 players.

Source: Baldur’s Gate 3 Companions Are So Horny Because Of A Bug

It must be Americans having complained or something. Boo.

Online image hosting service Imgur is updating its Terms of Service on May 15th to prohibit nudity and sexually explicit content, among other things. The news arrived in an email sent to “Imgurians”. The changes have since been outlined on the company’s “Community Rules” page, which reads: Imgur welcomes a diverse audience. We don’t want to create a bad experience for someone that might stumble across explicit images, nor is it in our company ethos to support explicit content, so some lascivious or sexualized posts are not allowed. This may include content containing:

– the gratuitous or explicit display of breasts, butts, and sexual organs intended to stimulate erotic feelings
– full or partial nudity
– any depiction of sexual activity, explicit or implied (drawings, print, animated, human, or otherwise)
– any image taken of or from someone without their knowledge or consent for the purpose of sexualization
– solicitation (the uninvited act of directly requesting sexual content from another person, or selling/offering explicit content and/or adult services)

Content that might be taken down may includes: see-thru clothing, exposed or clearly defined genitalia, some images of female nipples/areolas, spread eagle poses, butts in thongs or partially exposed buttocks, close-ups, upskirts, strip teases, cam shows, sexual fluids, private photos from a social media page, or linking to sexually explicit content. Sexually explicit comments that don’t include images may also be removed.

Artistic, scientific or educational nude images shared with educational context may be okay here. We don’t try to define art or judge the artistic merit of particular content. Instead, we focus on context and intent, as well as what might make content too explicit for the general community. Any content found to be sexualizing and exploiting minors will be removed and, if necessary, reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). This applies to photos, videos, animated imagery, descriptions and sexual jokes concerning children. The company is also prohibiting hate speech, abuse or harassment, content that condones illegal or violent activity, gore or shock content, spam or prohibited behavior, content that shares personal information, and posts in general that violate Imgur’s terms of service. Meanwhile, “provocative, inflammatory, unsettling, or suggestive content should be marked as Mature,” says Imgur.

Source: Imgur To Ban Nudity Or Sexually Explicit Content Next Month – Slashdot

Wow, the Americans have really gotten into prudery and are going back to medieval times if they feel the need to do this. You would have thought the Michaelangelo statue thing would have maybe had them thinking about how strange this all is but no. And this from the country that brought you the summer of love, Playboy and Penthouse.

Google’s search engine is getting an upgrade—yes with AI, but also with a blur filter. In a bid to shield its user’s eyes, Google announced yesterday that it will blur explicit images in search results, even when SafeSearch isn’t turned on.

The news comes in a blog post published by Google Senior Vice President of Core Systems & Experiences, Jen Fitzpatrick. While SafeSearch already filters out unsavory results for users that are logged in and under the age of 18, the blur setting will apply to explicit search results even when SafeSearch is turned off. According to the post, the feature will give searchers the option to view the image, but with the warning that it may contain explicit content. Fitzpatrick says that users can opt out of this feature in their SafeSearch settings.

[…]

This is actually not Google’s first time flirting with blurring potentially sensitive content. In December, the company announced that Magritte, a similar blurring tool, was going open source. Magritte won’t blur entire images necessarily, but can blur certain parts of images, like faces and license plates.

Source: Google Will Blur Explicit Images Even When SafeSearch Is Turned Off

Really? Americans can’t handle naked bodies so much that they need to blur it for adults?

It’s a sad time for titty lovers everywhere. Last week, the publisher of Hot Tentacles Shooter announced on Twitter that the game will no longer be available on the Nintendo Switch, because Nintendo no longer allows “uncensored boobs” on its consoles.

Originally spotted by Nintendo Everything, the publisher Gamuzumi had been in contact with Nintendo over approving Hot Tentacles Shooter for the Switch. The game is an anime arcade shooter where players rescue young women from tentacle monsters. Their bodies are covered up by tentacles, and you can unlock uncensored images of them once they’re freed from the monsters’ nefarious clutches.

Unfortunately, Nintendo told them that “obscene content” could “damage the brand” and “infringe its policies.” Since Hot Tentacles Shooter includes “boob nudity,” it was rejected during its Switch approval process. Kotaku reached out to Nintendo to ask about how long this policy has been in place, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Topless nudity has previously been allowed on the Nintendo Switch. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt features sex scenes where the women are fully topless, for instance. As of December 2021, players have confirmed that the breasts are fully uncensored on the Switch port. This has been a problem for players who don’t want their family members walking in. However, the European and the Japanese versions of the games appear to censor the sex scenes.

Gamuzumi intends to censor the game so that it can be published on the Nintendo Switch, but expressed disappointment that the policy will affect other adult games. Their other title Elves Christmas Hentai Puzzle had also been rejected, although the publisher has promised that Hot Tentacles Shooter will still be available on Steam.

[…]

Source: Nintendo Won’t Allow ‘Uncensored Boobs’ On The Switch Anymore

Yet another tech company making moral choices for the rest of the world. It’s like going back to the 1950s and tech companies are your parents claiming Rock and Roll is the Devil’s music. In the meantime those hypocrites had been banging and dancing to the Charleston in the 20s.

Just a few weeks after Hook Up: The Game released on Android, developer Sophie Artemigi was surprised to see the visual novel flagged for inappropriate sexual content.

By the game’s own description, you play as Alex, “a sex positive twenty-something” who matches with her old high school bully on a dating app, so of course, sexual themes are part of the package. But inappropriate? That was unexpected.

Google Play does warn developers that content designed to be “sexually gratifying” is not allowed on the platform, but it can be tricky to know how exactly that’s being enforced. Take 7 Sexy Sins, for example, a game which has the player removing the armor from anime demon girls, only to “snap some pictures… for personal uses”. It’s got an age rating of 12+ and has been downloaded more than 10,000 times without being pulled from the platform.

By contrast, Hook Up: The Game is a narrative game about dating, relationships and learning to deal with past trauma.

Artemigi appealed the decision to find out exactly what had crossed the line in this case.

In response she was told that Google “don’t allow apps that contain or promote sexual content or profanity”, or “appear to promote a sexual act in exchange for compensation”.

“For example”, the response continued, “your app screenshots currently contain an image that depicts sexually suggestive poses and sexual nudity”.

The following image was included as proof, with red rectangles drawn over the offending content.

You’ll note that the character’s breasts have been highlighted, but so has her belly button, which is just totally bizarre. Accordingly, Artemigi emailed back with her counterarguments.

First of all, Hook Up has nothing to do with sexual acts being performed in “exchange for compensation”, she explained. In an email shown to Kotaku, Artemigi asked why Google was conflating provocatively dressed women with sex workers?

As for the image itself, Artemigi argued that it’s meant to be reflective of the kind of pictures you might find on a dating app, which typically do not allow for pictures that are too revealing. It’s worth clarifying that Alex is not nude in this screenshot, but even if she was, the Play Store’s own policy states that nudity “may be allowed if the primary purpose is educational, documentary, scientific or artistic, and is not gratuitous”.

The illustration, Artemigi pointed out, was a direct reference to the statue of Napoleon’s sister and imperial princess, Pauline Boneparte, which you can see for yourself in Rome’s Galleria Borghese. It’s also pictured at the top of this article.

“That pose was specifically based on classical statues because there’s a reference to Alex feeling like her bully was this Greek god,” said Artemigi. “It’s meant to be about objectifying yourself and finding beauty in one’s self.”

But hey, sex is complicated and so, perhaps, are belly buttons.

After receiving another short reply stating that the screenshot depicts a “sexually nude and gratifying pose of a woman presented in a non-artistic way”, Artemigi asked to escalate the issue to somebody higher up in the policy team in the hopes of speaking to somebody who might appreciate the nuance of the situation.

The final response from her official Google contact once again pointed out that Hook Up was in violation of the platform’s policy, but this time ended with the following sentence:

“Regarding your concern about escalation, I am the highest form of escalation. Next to me is God. Do you wanna see God?”

Yikes.

“It was almost nice though,” said Artemigi, “because it kind of confirmed the vibe I’d been getting. I felt very dismissed, talked down to. At least they were honest in that one email, I’ll give them that.”

When asked for comment, Google told Kotaku that the person who wrote this email has now been removed from the developer support team.

Hook Up: The Game is still available to purchase on the Play Store, although it seemingly remains in breach of the company’s policy, meaning that Artemigi hasn’t been able to publish updates as she usually would.

It’s unclear whether this will have also affected the game’s standing on the platform, but it’s worth noting that despite hundreds of downloads and almost 40 reviews, searching “Hook Up: The Game” on the Play Store doesn’t bring up the game in my search results. Like, at all.

In fact, the only way I was able to find it via search was to use the full name of the developer.

There’s been no such problems over on iOS, although different screenshots are being used to market the game for that platform.

Source: Somehow This Video Game Belly Button Was Too Sexy For Google

Mindgeek may be the most powerful company that you’ve never heard of, or at least, a company you’ll claim never to have heard about in polite company. It’s the conglomerate that owns some of the world’s most visited porn sites, including Pornhub, RedTube and YouPorn. Far from simply being a popular and free way for people to consume adult content, it may soon have a powerful political role in the UK that will ensure its dominance for decades to come. That’s because, within the next year, Mindgeek may become the principal gatekeeper between the country’s internet users and their porn.

In April, the UK passed the Digital Economy Act 2017, legislation that mandated that any website showing adult content must verify the ages of its visitors. It was pushed through in response to concerns that children were being corrupted by easy access to and exposure to adult content at an early age. Section 15(1) of the bill requires that “pornographic material” not be published online, on a “commercial basis,” unless it is “not normally accessible by those under 18.” The bill has several flaws, not least the number of vague proposals it contains, and the ad hoc definition of what pornography actually is.

Section 17 of the same act outlined the creation of an “age-verification regulator,” the digital equivalent of a bouncer standing between you and your porn. This gatekeeper will have the right, and duty, to demand you show proof of age, or else refuse you access. In addition, the body will be able to impose fines and enforcement notices on those who either neglect or circumvent the policy.
[…]
Mindgeek’s discussions with the UK government are a matter of public record, as are some of the documents relating to the discussions. In one email, an unnamed Mindgeek representative proposed the gray-listing — essentially a temporary block — of more than four million URLs that (British ISP) Sky has cataloged. Each one of these sites, including Twitter, would then be contacted and told to sign up to the age verification system — like Mindgeek’s nascent AgeID — or face blacklisting. A Mindgeek spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that it believes up to 25 million Britons could sign up to its system.
Yahoo news

a description of personal traits increased likeability when it: showed who the dater was and what they were looking for in a 70:30 ratio; stayed close to reality; and employed simple language with humour added. Invitations were most successful in obtaining a response from the potential date when they: were short personalised messages addressing a trait in their profile; rhymed with their screen name or headline message; and extended genuine compliments. Online communication was most effective in leading to an in-person meeting if there were: a genuine interest; a rapid turnaround; reciprocity in self-disclosure; mimicry of body movements on the webcam; avoidance of criticism; humour; uncertainty about whether there was likeability; and an early move from electronic chat to a date.

Conclusions Attraction and persuasion research provides an evidence-based approach to online dating.

via An evidence-based approach to an ancient pursuit: systematic review on converting online contact into a first date — Khan and Chaudhry — Evidence-Based Medicine.

A leak list…
The Fappening!.

This is a live feed of the porn searches being performed. Also, it has a map so that you can see what  the top porn searches are per country.

Global Internet Porn Habits Infographic | PornMd Sex Search.