the piefed.monsterNexus Mods to Enforce Digital ID Age Checks Under UK and EU Laws
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CoelacanthI'm not sure I trust Nexus with a picture of my ID, you know. What a fucking mess.
Didn't nexusmods get sold to some unknown magical we can't speak about them but trust me bro they're good people corporate interest last month?
Sure did. I think it was some sort of cryptobro group focused on "growth and monetisation" if I remember right. Named "Chosen" I believe?
UlrichDoesn't really matter who they're sold to, they're going to have to comply with the law, whoever they are, unless they move to the Dark Web.
poryWhatever they end up doing for age verification in the EU/UK can probably be bypassed by a proxy/VPN, at least.
NessDIf they want to verify IDs, they're probably going to use a 3rd party service for that. Maybe it'll cost a fee. Maybe they'll have age verification like steam, just enter your birthday. I hope at least.
If it's a digital ID they want they're dead to me. Nobody should trust websites like NexusMods with data about themselves that can't be easily changed.
A sensible approach would be to require that content is tagged and child-unsave tags are hidden by default, must be enabled manually. I think?
That way, children aren't exposed to content they don't choose to be exposed to. Wouldn't that be enough legislation?
A sensible approach would be to require that content is tagged and child-unsave tags are hidden by default, must be enabled manually.
This is already how the site appears for me. It's stories like these that remind me that the NSFW content is there.
In the US and most of the rest of the world, that's what they're doing. In the UK/EU, they're being forced to require age verification.
Do note that while "protect the children from seeing a titty on the internet" is an unwinnable and pointless battle, the outside UK/EU method doesn't do anything to prevent it. I'm against age verification as a process, I want my accounts to be fully pseudonymous whenever possible, but without it there's nothing preventing a horny 15 year old from entering January 1 1990 into the age field or clicking "yes I'm 18" the way everyone's been doing since the Internet moved beyond Usenet. The EU/UK law is acknowledging the ankle-high barrier that "dude just trust me" age-gating applies, and is attempting to introduce some form of actual verification/accountability for sites that display porn. Doing this is, of course, awful for the freedom of information and privacy that can exist in online spaces, but "we gotta protect the children!!!".
As far as Nexus goes, this statement is as close as possible to saying "we are going to be complying with this law as we are forced to, but are committed to doing the absolute bare minimum required of us. UK/EU users will have to use a VPN into any other region to bypass whatever age verification system we're forced to implement."
For UK and EU-based users: In the future, we will be introducing age verification for the majority of adult content hosted on the site.
I can't imagine people are actually complying with this BS, right?
Agent KaryoBest to move off nexusmods now that it's owned by people with no interest in gaming or mods.
But where to?
Some are already on Github (which is not better imo). But half of the mods are not open source.
Age Verification is such a scam, why are politician still doesn't know how internet works in 2025...
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮They should just do what everyone else has been doing and simply not serve the places that require giving up your anonymity.
shani66Wouldn't it be better to just have a parenting license you need to get when you have a kid instead of trying to parent everyone using the government instead?
I miss the internet being a wild west.
It certainly had its downsides, but it felt a lot better than the nonsense that's been happening over the past decade+.
I remember being on GeoCities or Lycos and just incrementing the site number to see different sites.
Star Trek, Star Wars, Lego, PORN!
x00zIt's the same as fighting against "fake news" which just creates a false trust that everything on the internet is truth. Which is the opposite of what one should believe.
anon5621So then we need build new network with idea that it would be controlled by corps and gov so we need return back to darknet type of network and meshes
DevolutionUmmm what? You make no sense.
Sorry eng is not my native I meant. "So, we need to build a new network with the understanding that governments and corporations will always try to control it. That means returning to darknet-style architectures and mesh networks."
VitalyI was preparing my verbal pitchforks, but it seems they have chosen a middle ground. they will only require verification for adult content, and only in the EU and UK.
which means that if you don't need adult content or you can use a VPN, then it seems it won't affect you. so they are probably doing the bare minimum required by law
As someone who VPNs into the EU specifically for the privacy laws, this is troubling. I do wonder what my next move should be. I’d hate to lose my Steam account in particular.
Genuinely curious, is it just as a side effect of appearing to come from an EU server that means you trigger automated privacy systems? Or is there a legal basis by which you can say "I routed this through an EU server therefore I'm subject to EU privacy law" (maybe there isn't even a difference)
It’s as simple as getting the EU site and privacy policy when you connect from an EU IP. These systems are typically not as rigid as you might expect and the only friction might be around things like payment processing or things like that.
I get relatively uncensored internet access through UK/Ireland servers. This law and this type of law completely terrifies me.
A Wild Mimic appears!They are not a Very Large Online Portal and do definitely not have to implement this in the EU under the DSA. There is a list, if you are on it, you have to do it, if not then not. Also, the EU wide system for eID is not yet completed and currently there is a plethora of single services, one per country, for eID.
I know that they have to do this stuff in the UK, but fkn leave me alone with that shit. It only causes me to switch location in my VPN and doesn't help anyone, not even the kids this crap law pretends to protect.
e: here'S the list. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/list-designated-vlops-and-vloses
arararagiI'm glad they aren't just nuking every sexy mod from the site and chose to comply instead.
Loverslab would've crashed from all the sign ups lol.
Can I get mods there?
Yeah, the kinky kind.
And sometimes just super plain ones. I remember getting my favourite Skyrim potion texture mod from there specifically.
Add censorship for mods containing adult (sexual) content.
Slowly move the bar so that more content falls under definition of "adult" (themes of violence, LGBTQ+ themes).
Continue to move the bar until desired level of censorship is obtained.
Well done, you've used moral panic to control your media.
Dark futures aside, why do I think that folks are just going to VPN their way in?
Let's hope that new EU age verification system is actually good and privacy friendly.
Privacy friendly my ass. If they ask for my ID, it's not private.
Many European age verification services can verify the age without giving them any data. It works like OAuth. You get redirect to a portal where you login with your citizen ID and you'll get redirected back to the website.
How it would work in practice is still too soon to say. Maybe they'll also share other details such as your name or citizen id number to make sure you can only have a single account on the website. I wouldn't want this either.
Keep in mind that all kinds of age verification like this just shifts a lot of porn into the underground and will increase identity fraud. The illegal sale of hacked verified porn accounts will also become as valuable as porn accounts on paid websites.
Yeah, I'm against all of this control at the core. The privacy is just another step beyond.
If it just shares if you are 18+ or not or heck even if it shares my birthday idc. It's a non realistic identifier if it is only that.
It's way better than having to share your ID what is currently the case when you buy alcohol or drugs online or want to gamble online.
The system is not going to revolve around your ID or passport.
The entire point is to make something different, we already have some systems in place that only share part of your personal info.
In NL we already have iDIN and DigiD which are only verification tools, iDIN is used for sharing your name, address, birthday and a couple other things so that would share way to much for this purpose and DigiD shares even more.
iDIN uses your bank app and DigiD has it's own app and they show you what data is shared to the site.
I wouldn't want to use one of these things directly siince most people will not read that small list (it's literally just one sentence plus what data is shared in words).
But if we get another app which can only be used to share our birthday it is fine imo. For me personally the year would be fine, or you can do it so it shares if you are 18 or above.
It sucks that they have to do this. But I prefer this than to simply lock out users from the affected countries.
(Looking at steam here, not bothering to create age verification, which in turn means in some countries some games are not visible/purchasable at all)
In NL it is so stupid, I am legally allowed to verify my age and gamble, but opening loot boxes no way.
Worst part is that loot boxes aren't even defined as gambling yet ...
Loot boxes are far more predatory than gambling. They are literally advertised in games that children play.
It really depends on what people consider to be loot boxes imo, yes the traditional Tf2 once or the CSGO once which blew this hole thing open yes.
But does it stop with loot goblins in a game like Borderlands? Or does it stop with Magic the Gathering packs (which are required to play sealed/draft).
Actual gambling involves being able to lose your money and get nothing in return, with loot boxes you always get something. The predatory tactics against children need to stop, but there is no reason that an adult is allowed to gamble, but not open loot boxes.
Nexus mods love censorship, so this makes sense. New VC owners coming in hot with getting it ready to sell off to the biggest corporate company.
What are you even talking about, this is law compliance.
Nexus mods love censorship and control, so this makes sense. Pretty easy to understand.
They're a public platform, they have to moderate and "control" what gets posted, otherwise they get into trouble for it publicly.
I guess you haven’t been paying attention to them nuking and banning mods that they don’t like ideologically then?
You are moving the goalpost now, we know about the mods, but this is compliance. They either implement this, or blacklist the entire UK and EU from accessing the site.
Iirc only the UK law is actually binding, the EU, for now, got only guidelines, source Trust me Bro because its early and I feel not like doing research
I'm just saying, I bet they couldn't wait to implement this. They'll likely roll it out worldwide soon enough even when not forced to.
What mods, though?
The best example are the ones that replace "Type 1 / Type 2" with "Male / Female" in games where you create a character. Banned. Another is the one that simply replaced all the pride flags with american flags in Spider-Man. Banned.
I've had to reset my password after logging into nexus after long absence twice now. Both times because of a data breach. Really looking forward to their new age verification system and how it involves showing them my ID.
Even if they use a third party they're not perfect either.