online safety act vintage story 🚨 Online Safety Act & Game Server Owners – Who Handles Age Verification? 🚨

[Voldemort]

Hey all,

With the UK's new Online Safety Act ( censorship ) starting to impact online platforms, I'm wondering how this will affect game server owners, especially in communities with chat, modding, or user-generated content.

Do you think age verification will become something server owners are expected to manage themselves? Or will game developers be responsible for building this into their platforms by default?

Just trying to get ahead of this before things get more regulated. Curious what others think.. especially if you're based in the UK or already managing a server.

Thoughts? @Tyron @Vallen Thanks  

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[FlareUKCS]

I think VS will go under the radar, its not violent nor does it advocate anything except eldritch horror and survival, the fights are tame and there is no other forms of issues. I get the point but VS is pretty low on the list at the moment, I just hope the industry will wake up before it goes too far.

[LadyWYT]

5 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

Do you think age verification will become something server owners are expected to manage themselves? Or will game developers be responsible for building this into their platforms by default?

As I've always understood it...it's kind of both? The ESRB ratings exist for a reason, and there's a reason you have to enter your birth date or whatever to access the pages of games like Skyrim on Steam. As for online community content such as public servers and the like...those aren't rated, and if the server is run by a private individual/group(that is, not an official game server) then it's up to the server owner to manage their own community. 

5 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

With the UK's new Online Safety Act ( censorship ) starting to impact online platforms, I'm wondering how this will affect game server owners, especially in communities with chat, modding, or user-generated content.

And this is where everything I said above can be thrown out the window. When it comes to government involvement, it hinges less on what the law actually says and the intentions behind it, and more on who is enforcing/interpreting said law. If the people in charge are unscrupulous, they will have no qualms about twisting the law and abusing their authority to get what they want.

[Lugh Crow-Slave]

The way the laws are written the server hosts would hold most liability

[Krougal]

Unfortunately we're going to see more and more of this as time goes by.

The state of South Carolina started doing similar bullshit this year too.

Just the latest case of gov overreach.

I expect that 3rd party services will set themselves up as identity brokers, because I can't see giving proof of age, which would have to include a bunch of other PII to every service that requires it. That and more VPN providers from the countries that hold out against this, until they start blocking those.

[Voldemort]

1 hour ago, Lugh Crow-Slave said:

The way the laws are written the server hosts would hold most liability

aha so server hosting providers, how they will do that?

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Voldemort]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

As I've always understood it...it's kind of both? The ESRB ratings exist for a reason, and there's a reason you have to enter your birth date or whatever to access the pages of games like Skyrim on Steam. As for online community content such as public servers and the like...those aren't rated, and if the server is run by a private individual/group(that is, not an official game server) then it's up to the server owner to manage their own community. 

A server run by a private individual what do you mean by "private"? If it's truly private, then nothing can be done, since nobody would be able to access it anyway.
Official servers are open to everyone; otherwise, they wouldn't appear in the server search list.

Or am I misunderstanding something?

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Krougal]

8 minutes ago, Adnyeus said:

aha so server hosting providers 

Well part of the problem is the law is so vaguely worded and gives sweeping powers.

But yes, I can't see them going after some little game server, other than maybe telling you to shut it down, because it would be like squeezing blood from a stone trying to prosecute them. They will just go after the hosting provider, who put at risk of financial loss is likely going to cave without a fight.

 

Edited August 4, 2025 by Krougal

[Voldemort]

1 minute ago, Krougal said:

Well part of the problem is the law is so vaguely worded and gives sweeping powers.

But yes, I can't see them going after some little game server, other than maybe telling you to shut it down, because it would be like squeezing blood from a stone trying to prosecute them. They will just go after the hosting provider, who put at risk of financial loss is likely going to cave without a fight.

 

If that's the case, we might end up seeing hosting disappear entirely no servers, no communities. total black out.

[LadyWYT]

10 minutes ago, Adnyeus said:

A server run by a private individual what do you mean by "private"? If it's truly private, then nothing can be done, since nobody would be able to access it anyway.
Official servers are open to everyone; otherwise, they wouldn't appear in the server search list.

Or am I misunderstanding something?

By "private" I mean unofficial server, essentially; it can still be open to the public, but isn't sanctioned as an official server. In the case of Vintage Story, it'd be the kind you'd set up for playing with friends, or that a YouTuber might set up for their viewing community, instead of something like TOPS where it's run by the game studio/parent company. 

[Voldemort]

7 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

By "private" I mean unofficial server, essentially; it can still be open to the public, but isn't sanctioned as an official server. In the case of Vintage Story, it'd be the kind you'd set up for playing with friends, or that a YouTuber might set up for their viewing community, instead of something like TOPS where it's run by the game studio/parent company. 

To me, every server you can find is official If you're talking about Tyron's server, then that's the developer's server. We still have to use the same code and techniques to make a server just like he did. https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Setting_up_a_Multiplayer_Server If it weren't official, we wouldn’t be able to find it in the search bar, which still requires some verification from the server side.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Dilan Rona]

The way I understand the situation, it can go the following ways.

if you host your own server, on your own hardware, you will be responsible for age verification. Fail, and if it was connected to the internet, enforcement will come from the network providers.

If you rent a virtual, cloud, or barebone server from someone else, or another company, they will be responsible for the age verification. Regardless of what you allow on your rented server. And if the person or company fails to enforce the age verification, it will fall again on the network providers to do the enforcement.

Either way, this could also end up with you being reported to the financial side (banks, or transaction managers, etc...), who could decide to penalise you financially (which will be the end game imo if they manage to push far enough with the Online ID verification, which is nothing to do with children, and everything to do with rolling out the Social Credit System on a global scale.). 

[Dilan Rona]

Some of the discussion was also done on 

 

[Voldemort]

1 hour ago, Dilan Rona said:

If you rent a virtual, cloud, or barebone server from someone else, or another company, they will be responsible for the age verification. Regardless of what you allow on your rented server. And if the person or company fails to enforce the age verification, it will fall again on the network providers to do the enforcement. 

why not developer of that game?

The developer allows the creation of servers and has provided a guide on a Wikipedia page. If the server process were not supported or official, then yes, we would need to verify it ourselves. But the developer of the game made multiplayer possible. It's similar to how YouTube allows you to upload videos to your own channel, but YouTube handles age verification. Imagine if every content creator had to verify age of thier fans by them self.

 

You still need to access the Vintage Story game in order to play on the server, which is an important point. It’s just like YouTube to watch YouTube videos, you have to go to the YouTube website.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Rhyagelle]

I truly wish the worst on the people behind Collective Shout and everyone else pushing this insane garbage. It was the perfect excuse for world governments to implement Orwellian surveillance and thought monitoring. This is only going to get worse. People need to start protesting however they can before it is too late. The only way these kinds of people will listen, is through unrest and monetary loss. 

[Krougal]

4 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

why not developer of that game?

The developer allows the creation of servers and has provided a guide on a Wikipedia page. If the server process were not supported or official, then yes, we would need to verify it ourselves. But the developer of the game made multiplayer possible. It's similar to how YouTube allows you to upload videos to your own channel, but YouTube handles age verification. Imagine if every content creator had to verify age of thier fans by them self.

 

You still need to access the Vintage Story game in order to play on the server, which is an important point. It’s just like YouTube to watch YouTube videos, you have to go to the YouTube website.

That would be a case of you not following instructions fully; they made the game, they told you how to set up a server, you were told you needed to check people's age; it isn't on them to make sure you do it.

While they do allow asinine lawsuits against manufacturers, hopefully this doesn't go that far.

Still, this shit should have been shut down before it became a law.

 

[Voldemort]

37 minutes ago, Krougal said:

That would be a case of you not following instructions fully; they made the game, they told you how to set up a server, you were told you needed to check people's age; it isn't on them to make sure you do it.

While they do allow asinine lawsuits against manufacturers, hopefully this doesn't go that far.

Still, this shit should have been shut down before it became a law.

 

they’ve enabled and structured the multiplayer framework. This is similar to how YouTube allows users to create and manage their own channels, but YouTube still holds responsibility for core content policies and age restrictions because it's their platform and ecosystem.

You still need to own and access the Vintage Story game to connect to any server, just like you need to access YouTube to watch videos. In that sense, the game developer is not fully removed from the server experience they are a gateway. If they are allowing players under 18 into an ecosystem they facilitate, some responsibility arguably remains with them to implement or encourage proper age verification systems.

have asked A.I on that to lol  

 

37 minutes ago, Krougal said:

Still, this shit should have been shut down before it became a law.

There’s nothing we can do. Losing freedom doesn’t happen instantly  it happens slowly, and over the years, we’ll lose more and more until there’s total control.

 

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Voldemort]

35 minutes ago, Rhyagelle said:

I truly wish the worst on the people behind Collective Shout and everyone else pushing this insane garbage. It was the perfect excuse for world governments to implement Orwellian surveillance and thought monitoring. This is only going to get worse. People need to start protesting however they can before it is too late. The only way these kinds of people will listen, is through unrest and monetary loss. 

Collective Shout is true evil to, but not that big deal. 

[Dilan Rona]

12 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

why not developer of that game?

Same thing still applies there. If the activists fail to change what they perceive as hateful or fail to stop the developers from working on said game they will run to the hosting provider of the developer. Going so far as to try to have the developer web page removed from the internet. And theybwill lay a complaint with the payment process as a last resort. Just like with steam and itch.io

7 hours ago, Krougal said:

While they do allow asinine lawsuits against manufacturers, hopefully this doesn't go that far.

If they get their way they will push for exactly that, and I guarantee they will not stop there till the target is financially ruined and unable to make a living in future even.

 

7 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

There’s nothing we can do

There is a lot we can do, if we start right now. Or we risk loosing everything.

6 hours ago, Adnyeus said:

Collective Shout is true evil to, but not that big deal. 

By writing them off as no big deal, we fall into a trap. Treat them as a threat, and deal with them.

[7embre]

Will it really affect VS in any way tho? I mean, does it even have an appropriate 18+ rating to start worrying? There're no blood, no explicit signs of violence nor NSFW stuff present in the game. Some horror elements, sure. But nothing is shown, that's the trick. Moster design is creepy, sure, in a same way "children horrors" like FNAF are.

The most vintage story could get in regards to rating is 15+, pretty safe to say would even be possible to somehow bypass it down to 12+, like most of the publishers do nowadays.

Also, devs don't have any responsibility in regards to modifying the game, they only provide API and a database platform, in which some mods might require age verification..

I might not understand the whole sause tho, so that's just my two cents under halite dome. But as far as I can tell by the look of it, it targets 18+ content.

[Voldemort]

45 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

There is a lot we can do, if we start right now. Or we risk loosing everything.

what we can do then? UK is distopia now and EU soon in 2026

Just for context - I’m not talking about Collective Shout; they’re small fish in a big tank. I’m talking about the big shark: the government itself.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Adnyeus

[Voldemort]

1 minute ago, 7embre said:

Will it really affect VS in any way tho? I mean, does it even have an appropriate 18+ rating to start worrying? There're no blood, no explicit signs of violence nor NSFW stuff present in the game.

Man... over the years, I've visited a lot of weird servers, and I can say with clarity I've seen just about everything humanity has to offer.

It’s not the stuff inside the game that’s the real issue - it’s the people themselves and what they write in chat.

[Dilan Rona]

  

6 minutes ago, Adnyeus said:

what we can do then? UK is distopia now and EU soon in 2026

In your case, I honestly don't know. 

51 minutes ago, Dilan Rona said:

Treat them as a threat, and deal with them.

Just to clarify my point though, I am not advocating for violence, nor condoning it. Use their (collective shout) playbook against them for one. Also, look at their past activity, and what they were defending in the past (Defending the cuties movie for one).

I just find it odd that they would do this in the aftermath of what "Stop Killing Games" were trying to do in getting the AAA gaming companies to stop killing their game servers though. Beginning to think they are behind collective shout.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Dilan Rona

[Dilan Rona]

2 minutes ago, Adnyeus said:

it’s the people themselves and what they write in chat.

You hit the nail squarely on the head with that one.

[Krougal]

11 minutes ago, 7embre said:

Will it really affect VS in any way tho? I mean, does it even have an appropriate 18+ rating to start worrying? There're no blood, no explicit signs of violence nor NSFW stuff present in the game. Some horror elements, sure. But nothing is shown, that's the trick. Moster design is creepy, sure, in a same way "children horrors" like FNAF are.

The most vintage story could get in regards to rating is 15+, pretty safe to say would even be possible to somehow bypass it down to 12+, like most of the publishers do nowadays.

Also, devs don't have any responsibility in regards to modifying the game, they only provide API and a database platform, in which some mods might require age verification..

I might not understand the whole sause tho, so that's just my two cents under halite dome. But as far as I can tell by the look of it, it targets 18+ content.

VS, no, it is probably safe for the foreseeable future.

What is considered adult could change though, and also, what is considered adult can vary from place to place.

In the USA large amounts of violence are generally considered fine for children, show tits and you can forget it.

IIRC in some countries, any violence against humans is enough for an adult rating. So you could have robots killing each other, ships blowing each other up, but not humans being killed. Some nudity is generally not enough for an adult rating.

So that is the very real danger of very broad and vaguely defined terminology in laws.

Edited August 4, 2025 by Krougal