Nexus Mods, the popular modding platform, has announced significant changes that will affect users in the UK and EU. These changes come as part of the site’s effort to comply with new child safety laws and the regulation of ‘illegal content’ online.
With the recent shift in ownership, Nexus Mods is addressing legal requirements under the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The most notable change will be the introduction of age verification for users in the UK and EU. The goal is to prevent children from accessing mature and adult content. However, Nexus Mods has made it clear that adult content will not be removed from the site. Instead, the company intends to implement an age verification process to ensure that such content remains legally accessible to adults. As stated in their blog post, “Adult content is a core part of what makes Nexus Mods what it is; we don’t consider removing it a viable option.”
Along with the age verification process, Nexus Mods is also updating its terms of service to offer clearer definitions of what constitutes illegal content, particularly in relation to child sexual abuse material. While such content was always prohibited, the new terms aim to provide more transparency about how Nexus Mods protects children from harm. The platform will also enhance its ability to detect and remove such harmful content, reporting offenders to the UK’s National Crime Agency.
Further changes include a complete overhaul of how adult and mature content is categorized. Ten new content tags will be introduced, and users in the UK and EU will be able to access these only after verifying their age. These tags will help users filter out content they don’t wish to see. Some of the new tags are: Body stigma, Depression, Eating disorders, Extreme violence, Harmful substances, Pornographic, Self-harm, Sexualized, Suicide, and Swearing or Profanity. While these changes will not affect users’ ability to vote on content tags or mod authors’ ability to tag their mods, they do raise questions about how much control the platform should have over the content users can access.
One of the more contentious aspects of these changes is how the age verification system will work. While the specifics are still being discussed, there are concerns that an easy-to-fake checkbox verification would not be sufficient. A more secure process could involve uploading forms of identification, but the platform has yet to clarify how user data will be handled and protected. The new owners of Nexus Mods, taking over after the platform’s founder Dark0ne sold the site, now face the challenge of balancing legal compliance with user privacy and freedom.
The reactions to these changes have been mixed. Some users believe that age verification is necessary to protect children, while others are upset at the potential intrusion on their privacy or see this as an example of the growing control that governments are asserting over the internet. Nexus Mods’ former owner, Dark0ne, even weighed in, expressing relief that the current owners are handling this issue rather than him. He noted that although the changes may be frustrating, they are necessary for legal compliance. “You can be worried or angry with the direction the internet is taking,” he wrote, “but the law is the law, and Nexus Mods will, and must, follow the law.”
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