Collective Shout, a small but vocal lobby group, has long called for a mandatory internet filter that would prevent access to adult content for everyone in Australia. Its director, Melinda Tankard Reist, was recently appointed to the stakeholder advisory board for the government’s age assurance technology trial before the under-16s social media ban comes into effect in Australia in December.

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[–] 127 points 1 year ago* (13 children)

While Collective Shout solely targeted games it said violated policies held by payment platforms, Itch.io's move to temporarily remove all NSFW content resulted in games with LGBTQ+ themes being removed.

One petition signer who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community said they were concerned that banning sexual-based games would be the start of cracking down on LGBTQ+ content.

There it is.

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  • [–] 24 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    if the LGBTQ+ games were not sexual in nature (why does it not say?), then that is quite damning and I approve of this conspiracy theory.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 year ago

    It's not all that much of a conspiracy theory as those pushing this line at the payment processoers openly advocate that since LGBTQ+ references sex by way of sexuality and gender, then that is sexual content, and is therefore inappropriate for children. This, of course, completely ignores heterosexuality and cisgender because they consider queer people existing to be harmful to children. And trying to get through to them about how important age-appropriate sexual education is in combating child abuse is an exercise in frustration.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    How can you know a game is LGBTQ+ if they don't talk about sex/gender? They look like normal humans to me, which differ in sexual preferences only? Example: How can you say this guy is gay without knowing his sexual preferences?

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  • [+] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    In some jurisdictions, something being LGBTQ+ is inherently sexual. Places like Florida have a very psychotic view of what makes something sexual, and bans media for containing LGBTQ+ themes.

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