Steam's weird relationship with porn

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Hi reader,

I feel first of all like I should apologise for even putting this here as a discussion, I'd hoped to send an email to Steam or something but that doesn't seem to be possible. This way at least I suppose I can hear other peoples' opinions to see whether I'm on an island or not. I don't really like seeing the Steam Store flooded with porn. There have been days when the 'new releases' frontpage has been literally nothing but it. A robot or pedant could nitpick at the rules concerning what can or can't be on the Store or where the line between artistic nudity and exploitation is drawn, but any human could clearly identify those games as pornography. We're at a stage now where games can have erect penises prominently shown in their steam store page, and that's apparently okay.

I am aware that you can filter tags such as sexual content or nudity from your store page, but if I did that I'd be filtering out amazing games like Dragon Age or Witcher (to namedrop a few big examples) just because I want to avoid Naughty Nurses 3 or whatever. I'm not going to go on a "Think of the childrens!" spree, and I'm not really outraged.. It's just that I don't really want to have to wade through legions of hentai games just to see the things I might actually want to buy. If Steam's got to have porn to keep the lights on, it would be nice if it could have either a separate client or at least be cordoned into an area where you don't have to encounter it at all if you're not looking for it. Right now it's sort of like a supermarket mingling the adult magazines with the cereal aisle.

[Washell]

Messaggio originale di AmsterdamHeavy:

Lets be real; anyone that wants porn can get it easily - they dont need games

Nobody needs games, porn or regular. But all of us here enjoy the regular ones, and some of us enjoy the porn ones too.

[AmsterdamHeavy]

Messaggio originale di Washell:

Messaggio originale di AmsterdamHeavy:

Lets be real; anyone that wants porn can get it easily - they dont need games

Nobody needs games, porn or regular. But all of us here enjoy the regular ones, and some of us enjoy the porn ones too.

You misunderstood my response. which was to the idea of an age verification process.

Im all for people buying and playing whatever they want.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Very reasonable posts mentioning the 'Adults Only' filter. I do have this filter enabled, but it doesn't quite catch everything. I can't really say how many games it has successfully prevented from reaching my store page, but I can say that there have been plenty of games that should have had the tag but didn't.

[Ogami]

Messaggio originale di Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

Very reasonable posts mentioning the 'Adults Only' filter. I do have this filter enabled, but it doesn't quite catch everything. I can't really say how many games it has successfully prevented from reaching my store page, but I can say that there have been plenty of games that should have had the tag but didn't.

"The Adult Only" filter ONLY filters out pornographic games. Meaning, you see genitals, penetration, the full course. Those games get filtered 100%.
Games with sexual content that is either censored, only superficial (slight nudity, no genitals/sex visible) or who can be patched to become pornographic are NOT filtered by it.
Those games have the "Sexual Content" tag, which for example a game like "Witcher 3" also has.

The system works, you just need to realize the distinction it makes between softcore erotic and hardcore pornography.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

I am aware of the distinction that it makes, the case I am arguing is that the distinction is insufficient. If I have checked that I don't want to see "Adults Only" and yet a 4x4 puzzle slider where the 'prize' is seeing the pinup of the anime girl's underwear is showing up, or a more clearly hardcore pornographic (but for some reason its okay because they really weakly blurred the genitals) title, then I feel like something has gone wrong.

I don't really know what the solution is. I don't think Steam necessarily has to be smut-free if that's what the company wants to get involved in, I just wish there was more distinction between the catalogues.

[Nightlight]

Messaggio originale di Super Cosmic Space Magnet:

I am aware of the distinction that it makes, the case I am arguing is that the distinction is insufficient. If I have checked that I don't want to see "Adults Only" and yet a 4x4 puzzle slider where the 'prize' is seeing the pinup of the anime girl's underwear is showing up, or a more clearly hardcore pornographic (but for some reason its okay because they really weakly blurred the genitals) title, then I feel like something has gone wrong.

I don't really know what the solution is. I don't think Steam necessarily has to be smut-free if that's what the company wants to get involved in, I just wish there was more distinction between the catalogues.

Are you talking about the various hentai puzzle games? If so, every one of those that I've seen has been marked "adult only." Are you sure you don't have "Adult Only Sexual Content" enabled? To make sure that you have actually disabled "adult only" stuff, go to your store preferences and see if the box next to "Adult Only Sexual Content" is unchecked. Unchecked=you won't see "adult only" stuff, checked=you will see "adult only" stuff.

[Crimson Hog]

Messaggio originale di Ogami:

Games with sexual content that is either censored, only superficial (slight nudity, no genitals/sex visible) or who can be patched to become pornographic are NOT filtered by it.
Those games have the "Sexual Content" tag, which for example a game like "Witcher 3" also has.

Again. What the difference? Both games have a sexual content and actually Witcher 3 have a softcore porno scenes instead of some anime pin-up.

[Rockets]

I thought Steam was hands off. Then they banned rape day and school shooter right?
Do they list what the rules are for what games they do accept or how they process them?

[chaoticenigma]

There's plenty of these "Hentai whatever" puzzle asset flips with likely stolen art getting away with it because only the actual artist would be able to report them. I say likely in the very unlikely case that someone actually did do their own art for one of them, but considering the low prices, I kind of doubt that.

There's a lot of them, both in AO and not AO. But either way, they're generally asset flips which would be considered "fake games" by Valve's definition, yet they're totally fine to be spammed and even occasionally get trusted by the algorithm and are allowed to count.


Then they ban a bunch of other games that have actual effort put into them, even censored versions that contain absolutely nothing that would be risky in terms of legality, as well as other games with effort being put into them that can't get trusted by the algorithms.


The old policy of no porn on Steam without outside patch was so much better because you didn't have games with absolutely no porn being banned for supposedly having illegal content(which the all age ones that got banned wouldn't have)

[Satsujinki]

I’ve been wondering why did they let some asset flip on their store because they don’t see them as fake games.

And on other side...they banned (or rejected them whilst to review them until few months later) some VNs which they had nothing to do with trolling or illegal. Just like that Hello, goodbye was original banned back in December and it took them six months to review (?) it and game them for their thumbs up to return it on store.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Well I assumed you went out of your way to go into your preference settings, and enable to show "adult content" or else you wouldn't be bringing them up really. When not enable by default, you wouldn't be able to search for adult games, unless either you know the direct link, or Google search for them.

How the new, and trending works, shows recently new games, and that are currently trending, games that are new, and trending won't stay long on the front page, they would be push down the hole in no time by the newest / trending games.

You can try using tags as well to filter some games out as well. Beware what tags you choose to filter out.

Dragon age, witcher and etc would have tag under sexual content, which yes there is that in the games. But they're not porn, neither are they label under the "adult section" either. If those games are a problem, then I suggest filter tag sexual content, and that remove a large range of games.

If you need someone to hold your hand for you, or tell you what to play, and not to play, then maybe you need to rethink somethings for awhile. Even when it comes to children allowing them to play videos games, it's up to the parents / guardian, to choose what they're allowed, and not allowed, there's even family parental control you can setup on Steam as well, to give access to specific games of your choosing, and more.

If they say someone seeing love scene in Witcher 3 a problem, but completely ok with GTA V torture scene, then there something wrong.

Messaggio originale di B00tsy:

Violent games causes no fuzz so pron/adult content should not either. Only problem is that there is no real age restriction/verification on Steam. I personally think that all 18+ games should be hidden from unverified accounts. Time for Valve to develop a good age verification system linked to payment info. Though I doubt they will do that unless it is forced by law.

There's a flaw in that. Hey Ma, let me borrow your credit card for a min, and just like that, you had bypass. What Steam doing is the best they can do, there's nothing they can do really.

Messaggio originale di Rockets:

I thought Steam was hands off. Then they banned rape day and school shooter right?
Do they list what the rules are for what games they do accept or how they process them?

They say they remove any games if they were either illegal, or trolling.

[B✪✪tsy]

Messaggio originale di Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Messaggio originale di B00tsy:

Violent games causes no fuzz so pron/adult content should not either. Only problem is that there is no real age restriction/verification on Steam. I personally think that all 18+ games should be hidden from unverified accounts. Time for Valve to develop a good age verification system linked to payment info. Though I doubt they will do that unless it is forced by law.

There's a flaw in that. Hey Ma, let me borrow your credit card for a min, and just like that, you had bypass. What Steam doing is the best they can do, there's nothing they can do really.

Thats not a flaw, but parents responsibility. How many parents just handout their CC to their kids? Not many I suspect.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Messaggio originale di B00tsy:

Messaggio originale di Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

There's a flaw in that. Hey Ma, let me borrow your credit card for a min, and just like that, you had bypass. What Steam doing is the best they can do, there's nothing they can do really.

Thats not a flaw, but parents responsibility. How many parents just handout their CC to their kids? Not many I suspect.

It is a flaw... All they have to do is ask them to buy them something for them on the account, or they borrow their credit card after asking them, or even straight up, just use the credit card without them knowing. Also to add it's the parent's responsibility to monitor their kids on the internet use, and setup parental control as well, the flaw is the payment verification, which wouldn't do jack as that wouldn't tell Steam anything, all they know is someone paid, and that's about it.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

https://imgur.com/a/vi38TJ7

I don't know what to tell you guys, I really do have 'Adults Only' disabled. 'Nudity or Sexual Content' tags include: Devil May Cry 5, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Tekken 7. As I said in my first post I don't think anyone other than someone seriously pedantic could reasonably confuse one of those games (Witcher 3 seems the popular example) with Kawaii Schoolgirls DD Japan or whatever.

I'm trying to avoid discussion of the legality of various sorts of pornography, and the question of childrens' usage of steam. That is an issue, but not the one I am attempting to address. My post is simply about a general user not really liking the proliferation of pornography within Steam.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

A friend suggested I add "Dating Sim" and "Visual Novel" to the exclusion list. I have done so and honestly that seems to have completely fixed the problem.