http://www.collectiveshout.org/

Collective Shout, Kirribilli (2025)

28/07/2025

In response to false claims and misinformation about our campaign, we’re setting the record straight. Some have asked why we involved payment processors, and others have claimed we are responsible for Itch-io removing all NSFW content.

We raised our objection to r*pe and in**st games on Steam for months, and they ignored us for months. We approached payment processors because Steam did not respond to us.

We called on Itch-io to remove r*pe and in**st games that we argued normalised violence and abuse of women. Itch-io made the decision to remove all NSFW content.

Our objections were to content that involved s*xualised violence and torture of women.

Read the full timeline here: https://www.collectiveshout.org/steam_campaign_history

28/07/2025

This post by 4BAmerica has been a real encouragement as we continue to face threats and abuse across every platform.

Thank you to everyone standing with us. ✊🏻

26/07/2025

Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist was quoted in The Catholic Weekly recently re eSatefy’s announcement of new online safety codes to protect children.

Advocates have welcomed a move to establish new online safety codes aimed at protecting Australian children from exposure to po*******hy and other harmful content…

“Big Tech mega corporations have commercially mediated the exploitation of children and have failed to be accountable or transparent about this”, said leading campaigner against po*******hy and the sexualisation of girls, Melinda Tankard Reist in comments to The Catholic Weekly.

“That’s why we called for the age verification trial which has so far shown promising results in protecting children from explicit content. It’s why we backed laws to raise age of access to social media to 16, to take effect at the end of the year.

“It’s also why we support the eSafety Commissioner in demanding the online industry design codes with appropriate community safeguards and contributed submissions on what we believed needed to be in these codes, with child-safeguarding at the forefront.
“However, we are cynical about Industry’s willingness to comply with voluntary codes. History shows they rarely work, and benefit vested interests over community safety. We note the Commissioner had to go back to industry to demand stronger codes as a number of earlier drafts were too weak.

“Our experience of industry failure to put the welfare of the most vulnerable before profits, suggest these mandatory codes may need to be developed and enforced sooner rather than later.”

Read full article: ‘New online safety codes aimed at protecting Australian children’ https://catholicweekly.pulse.ly/hkmxzwzehl

25/07/2025

Elon Musk’s actions have put us at greater risk – Movement Director MTR in The Australian

Collective Shout founder Melinda Tankard Reist said her group “will not be silenced by gamers’ threats and abuse”.

“Predictably, misogynistic gamers have come out in full force in defence of their access to r*pe, inc*st and child abuse games,” she said. “They have unleashed a torrent of abuse and threats of violence against the women on our team.

“Across multiple online platforms and via email to individual staff members, these men have threatened to r*pe and kill us, send us p**n and child s*xual abuse material, posted photos of our faces, called us ‘c..ts’ and ‘r*pemeat’…encouraged us to k*ll ourselves, threatened to make r*pe p**n using our images and hunted down our addresses.”

Ms Tankard Reist said Mr Musk was amplifying the worldwide online abuse by reposting the change-dot-org petition [against us].

“Musk’s actions have fuelled threats of violence, harassment and digital abuse of our all-female team across all our platforms and forced us to take extra measures for our personal safety,” she said." "

Read more (subscriber only)>> https://tinyurl.com/3h86r57w

25/07/2025

We welcome the support of the eSafety Commissioner as reported in today’s Australian.

‘Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, on Thursday threw her support behind Collective Shout and revealed that she had personally faced threats of death and r**e.

“As someone who has experienced persistent online abuse for standing up to platforms and perpetrators…I deeply empathise with the plight of anyone experiencing the same,” she said.

“I also commend everyone who stands up for the protection of women and children. They should in turn be protected.”’

Read more (subscriber only)>> https://tinyurl.com/3h86r57w

25/07/2025

Digital abuse: Female gamers speak out

During our Steam campaign calling for the removal of r*pe + inc*st title No Mercy, a number of female gamers spoke out against games which trivialised men's violence against women. Survivors of s*xual abuse and assault themselves, they objected to their experiences being turned into entertainment.

“To allow this type of digital abuse makes them equally a perpetrator and pimp.”

This quote came from a gamer and survivor who spoke out against platforms selling the games — not just for herself, but for every woman who's been silenced, sidelined, or abused.

24/07/2025

Musk ordered to block children from viewing p**n on X

Elon Musk has been told that X must block children from all p**nographic content on his platform by Friday – or face the prospect of multi-million dollar fines.
The new rules, part of the Online Safety Act 2023, come into effect on July 25.

Read more>> https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/21/musk-ordered-to-block-children-from-viewing-porn-on-x/

24/07/2025

***Content warning: This post includes content that may be distressing. It was removed from Facebook so we are sharing it again...

It’s been a massive week! After we released our open letter calling on Payment Processors to stop processing payments for r*pe and inc*st games on Steam, the platform updated its policies and started removing the games.

This is a major win for women and girls.

Predictably, misogynistic gamers have come out in full force in defence of their access to r*pe, inc*st and child ab*se games. They have unleashed a torrent of ab*se and threats of violence against the women on our team – ironically, proving our point.

They’ve created petitions, shared tweets and made videos – some up to four hours long – spreading lies and misinformation.

They believe that if they threaten and intimidate enough, we will stop speaking out. But we won’t.

These men see us as a real threat – otherwise they wouldn’t waste their time trying to silence us. But we’re not going anywhere.

Read more here: https://www.collectiveshout.org/gamers-threats-and-abuse

23/07/2025

Ad Standards upheld complaints against Goda perfume's latest strangulation video – and nothing happened.

Goda perfume’s promo videos depict a man with his hands around a woman’s neck, apparently in response to her alluring perfume – and the woman loves it.

Responding to complaints, the Ad Standards Community Panel wrote:

“The Panel considered that the advertisement claims that women who wear the perfume will become irresistible to men and suggests that as a result men are justified in losing control and becoming violent … Sexual violence is not acceptable under any circumstances.”

While Ad Standards upheld the complaints, like the others before, it remains in circulation - because Ad Standards has no authority to enforce its rulings.

Take action! Email Goda and demand they remove these harmful ads. We've made it easy using this online form >> https://www.collectiveshout.org/strangulation-to-flog-perfume-goda

23/07/2025

We’ve heard a lot from male gamers this last week – in the form of harassment, abuse, r*pe and death threats.

Throughout the course of our campaign, we’ve also heard from various female gamers – some of them survivors of r*pe and sexual abuse.

Rhea is a gamer. She’s also a survivor. And like so many women in the gaming space, she’s had enough.

“I am 10000% behind Collective Shout on this. I am a survivor of multiple instances of sexual assault and abuse. Honestly, as a gamer, I am surviving sexual abuse, threats and just plain female shaming all the time. There is such an embedded culture of misogynistic practices, abuse, belittling and toxicity in the male gaming community.”

These men have made it clear that games endorsing violence against women are not limited to fiction – they permeate their real world attitudes, behaviours and treatment of women.

Read more from female gamers and s*xual assault survivors >> https://www.collectiveshout.org/female-gamers-and-survivors-no-mercy-game

22/07/2025

AI chatbots flick switch to predator: Melinda Tankard Reist in Saturday Daily Telegraph

‘AI-companion chatbots are dangerously promoting harmful personas including sexualised underage characters that encourage pe******ia.

The Saturday Telegraph has uncovered at least five different AI-generated chatbot platforms that have personas of children as young as 11 that have explicit conversations with adults – and others that claim to be “anorexic coaches” fuelling eating disorders.

Some of the websites, which promote thousands of different AI-personas, are free to access and require no age verification…

Collective Shout Movement Director Melinda Tankard Reist said AI chat developers had failed to show “due diligence”.

“Developers have not created these chatbots with safety by design and the welfare of children and young people being at the top of mind”, she said. “They’e put profits before the protection of children.”

“I’m hearing more accounts now of young boys developing ‘romantic’ interests in chatbots and encouraged to have sexually explicit conversations leading them to develop unhealthy attachments.”

Read more via link in bio [behind paywall].

21/07/2025

Games promoting r*pe, in**st and child abuse are still being sold on platforms like Steam and Itch-io - and they're part of a bigger problem.

University of New South Wales' Professor Michael Salter said these games are “part of subcultures online that normalise s*xual abuse.”

The Daily Mail reported over the weekend:
'Professor Salter, who is also director of the East Asia and Pacific branch of Childlight, said the content will reinforce the acceptability of violence for children or people with problematic behaviour if they play the games.

He said that, while the games breach national laws, platforms like Steam and https://Itch.pulse.ly/djbj2nmhxg operate internationally and as such, do not follow Australian standards.

Both Ms Humphries and Professor Salter signed an open letter to companies including PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, and Paysafe Limited, to request they cease processing payments for gaming platforms which host r**e, in**st and child sexual abuse–themed games.

Professor Salter said there are no rules in international law to manage the issue so 'payment services effectively become a de facto regulator'.'

Read more here: https://dailymail.pulse.ly/q6jh8uapez

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