Vikki Blake
Guest
Age verification will be coming into force for European and British modders using Nexus Mods.
Last month, Nexus Mods founder Robin "Dark0ne" Scott said that for both "my and the community's best interest," the "time has come to step back from the day-to-day running of the site."
However, these changes do not come at the behest of the new owners, but are part of the company's legal obligation to comply with the UK government's new Online Safety Act and the EU's Digital Services Act.
"Due to the Online Safety Act and Digital Services Act, we are required as a UK-based company to ensure we continue to remove illegal content and add additional restrictions to children’s access to certain adult content," the company explained.
"As a business, this leaves us with a choice: remove adult content for all UK and EU-based users, or make adjustments to our policy, including adding age verification for some adult content.
"Adult content is a core part of what makes Nexus Mods what it is; we don’t consider removing it a viable option. We are aware that some users may find the changes irritating; however, we are obligated to do this to ensure we can continue to host adult content legally."
We can expect more information when the finalized Adult Content Guidelines are ready, but the team said that in the meantime, it would be updating its terms of service "to include a clearer, more detailed definition of what counts as illegal content under UK law and how we protect children from harm whilst on the site."
"While this kind of content was already not allowed on the site, we’re tightening the language to be absolutely clear," Nexus said. "All users will be notified when the Terms of Service are updated."
Nexus will also be introducing automated detection for illegal or abusive content, with "any content of this nature immediately removed, and the user responsible will be banned and reported to the National Crime Agency."
We can also expect revised tags for adult content, an improved block and mute system, and better spam detections. Eventually, there'll be age verification checks for "the majority of adult content hosted on the site" for all UK and EU users, while users outside of Europe will "not be subject to age verification."
"The current approach to verifying you are above 18 years of age will remain the same unless we are legally required to change this to operate in your country," the team added.
In related news, Stellar Blade director and producer Kim Hyung Tae reportedly "fully supports" mods, which is just as well, really, as there are almost 600 of them listed on Nexus, covering everything from new skins to reshaders and VR to nail polish. There are also dozens more hidden from public display and categorized as "adult." Let's leave it at that, shall we?
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.