Nexus Mods has announced that there will be significant changes coming to the website for users in the UK and EU, as its new ownership is working to comply with new EU and UK laws on child safety and the harboring of “illegal content” online.

Two weeks prior to this writing and the announcement of these changes, Nexus Mods changed ownership, with its founder selling the website after 24 years. This is the first major change and action the new owners are taking with the website, though these changes are less about the new owners deciding to shuffle things around, and more about complying with the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act.

The biggest change for UK and EU users is that Nexus Mods will implement some form of age verification in the near future, to try and prevent children from accessing mature and adult content. Adult content isn’t being removed from the website, as Nexus Mods says in its blog post announcing the changes, “Adult content is a core part of what makes Nexus Mods what it is; we don’t consider removing it a viable option. We are aware that some users may find the changes irritating; however, we are obligated to do this to ensure we can continue to host adult content legally.“

Some of these changes involve Nexus Mods updating its terms of service to include “more detailed definition of what counts as illegal content under UK law and how we protect children from harm whilst on the site.” Nexus Mods clarifies that the content it is discussing here, including content depicting child sexual abuse was already not allowed on the website. It is just making the language in its terms of service even more clear than it previously was.

Nexus Mods will also be adding automatic detection for any mods and content that include child sexual abuse. Creators found including that kind of content in their mods will have it removed from the website, be banned from Nexus Mods, and be reported to the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The other major changes include an overhaul of how adult and mature content is categorized, with 10 new content tags being introduced that users in the UK and EU will be allowed to access after they have verified their age. Users will also be able to select which tags they see on the website and which they want to hide. These new tags also do not change users ability to vote on content tags for mods, nor does it change a mod author’s ability to tag their own mods. The new tags are:

• Body stigma
• Depression
• Eating disorders
• Extreme violence
• Harmful substances
• Pornographic
• Self-harm
• Sexualized
• Suicide
• Swearing or Profanity

The response to these changes has been mixed, to say the least. While no one is arguing that children shouldn’t be protected from adult and mature content online or that child sexual abuse material should be hosted on the website, the sticking point around it all is how the age verification will work. All Nexus Mods is saying for now is that “the specifics of this [age verification] are being carefully considered as we want to get this right so that the option to view adult content remains available to adults, whilst fulfilling our legal obligation to ensure children are safe on our website.”

Nexus Mods could add age verification that’s no deeper than clicking a box to verify a user is 18 years or older, which anyone who has been on the internet for more than five minutes will tell you that children on the website will just lie through. If the age verification is deeper than that, it could involve users being required to upload a form of ID. How that information will be protected and stored is what has users concerned. Either way, a new form of age verification is coming, one way or another, and its unfortunate for the new owners that this is their first major issue to deal with.

Founder and former owner of Nexus Mods, Dark0ne, piped into the comment section to make it clear that if he were still running the website, this would be his mess to deal with, and that he would’ve had to deal with it this year. He said that he’s “relieved” it’s not him at the helm of this, and adds that he would have made the changes the new owners are making now.

“You can be worried or angry with the direction the internet is taking and the amount of control governments are enforcing on it around the world,” Dark0ne writes, “but the law is the law, and Nexus Mods will, and must, follow the law.“