'Dirty baker's dozen': 13 companies facilitating sexual exploitation

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Friday, February 07, 2020

Steam

The online video game distribution service, Steam, is used by over 90 million people to access the most popular video games on the market. Steam has once again found itself on the Dirty Dozen List.

According to NCOSE, about 35 million of Steam’s users are minors who can access hundreds of games that promote “gratuitous sexual content, violence, and harassment.”

“The lack of sufficient filtering or parental controls makes Steam a major contributor to sexual exploitation in one of society’s most popular sectors — gaming,” the NCOSE explains.

“To make matters worse, Steam specifically rolled back on many restrictions and protections it previously had on the site, creating a policy in 2018 after community backlash over the removal and censoring of many games that featured extreme sex acts such as rape and graphic nudity.”

According to NCOSE, Steam implemented an “anything goes” policy with just a “few exceptions.”

NCOSE reports that sexually exploitative games available on Steam have skyrocketed from over 700 in 2017 to 3,911 in 2020.