Nexus Mods is implementing sweeping changes to the website in order to follow UK and EU laws. These changes include an age verification check for EU and UK users, which will be coming in the near future.

In addition, Nexus Mods will be taking steps to remove “illegal content” from the website, to protect children as demanded in the UK’s Online Safety Act. A new tag system for adult content will be implemented, including pornographic, suicide, and depressions.

The Nexus Mods team is also overhauling the website’s blocking system. Users can now “Ignore” other users, which replaced the old Block Author function. People you block won’t be able to comment or otherwise interact with the media you post. Finally, any images featuring pornographic content can only be shared using the supporter tier of the website’s media share feature.

At the end of the official post announcing these changes, the Nexus Mods team stated they “are not optional for us. They are part of complying with legislation, and we are committed to keeping our platform safe for everyone.”

The previous owner – Dark0ne – hopped into the comments to support the new team in charge in light of these changes. He wrote: “We did not write these laws, we have no control over these laws. Nexus Mods is not an underground website operating on the dark web – it’s a legitimate business that has to follow the laws of the countries it operates in. If we don’t follow these new laws then we will get fined out of existence (the fine in the UK alone is 10 percent of worldwide revenue or £18m ($25m USD) – whichever is higher).”

Dark0ne continued: “Whoever owned Nexus Mods, whether it was still me or the new ownership, would have had to have dealt with it this year no matter what. Frankly, I’m relieved that it is not me who has to deal with this or be responsible for the content on the site directly because I have some big misgivings about how it is being enforced. However, if it was me, I would still have followed the letter of the law, and I’d have been doing what is written above. Because I’d have to.”

Let’s take a look at these two pieces of legislation Nexus Mods is citing as the force pushing these changes. The UK’s Online Safety Act essentially is an online content moderation bill forcing platforms to take steps to stop kids from seeing adult or illegal content.

According to a UK’s Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology online safety bill explainer: “The Act will give providers new duties to implement systems and processes to reduce risks their services are used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content when it does appear.”

The UK law places emphasis on protecting kids and the removal of CSAM (child sexual abuse material), “content that amounts to terrorism”, assisting-suicide, and equally dire content.

Meanwhile the EU’s Digital Services Act is focused largely on “illegal content”, essentially demanding all large platforms take steps to remove such harmful content or risk hefty fines.

This sort of content was already not allowed on Nexus Mods, but the terms and services are being updated to make the guidelines absolutely clear, so mod creators can understand what’s allowed under UK law.

Community reaction to these changes are mixed. Some are coming from a place of understanding, noting Nexus Mods can’t really do much about legislation impacting large websites. Others are welcoming the changes, happy the website will be scoured from illegal content and younger audiences will be protected.

There are, however, plenty of people anxious about how age verification will work. A lot of the future changes coming to Nexus Mods are still vague, due in large part to the team still in the process of figuring them out. Age verification is coming, but in what form? Is it going to be a standard “are you 18?” check box, something which would protect Nexus Mods but all kids will just lie through, or will it request some form of evidence to prove one’s age?

If it’s the latter, how will this data be protected? It’s all a messy soupy problem Nexus Mods will have to fix. It’s a real optics roadbump for Nexus Mods, given this sweeping change to content moderation and age verification comes only a few weeks after Nexus Mods changed ownership to growth-focused company Chosen.