Leading global anti-sexual exploitation organisations and individuals have signed an open letter to senior executives at seven credit card and payment gateway companies calling on them to cease facilitating and profiting from sales transactions for rape, incest and child abuse-themed games.
The letter is directed to Paypal, Mastercard, Visa, Paysafe Limited, Discover and Japan Credit Bureau. It follows our investigation which uncovered 500 games featuring violent sexual torture of women and children including incest-related abuse involving family members on the Steam and Itchoio gaming platforms
Collective Shout had earlier forced the removal of ‘No Mercy’ - a violent, sexually explicit video game that allowed users to roleplay as a character who rapes and tortures women - from the Steam platform following a viral global campaign which attracted over 70k signatures and international media.
The open letter calling on seven payment gateways to stop profiting from gamified violence against women and children is directed to Mr Alex Chriss, Chief Executive Officer and President, Paypal, Mr Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer, Mastercard, Mr Ryan McInerney, Chief Executive Officer, Visa, Mr Bruce Lowthers, Chief Executive Officer, Paysafe Limited, Mr Michael J. Shepherd Director and interim CEO and President, Discover and Mr Takayoshi Futae, President, CEO and Chairman, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB).
“These games endorsing men’s sexualised abuse and torture of women and girls fly in the face of efforts to address violence against women. We do not see how facilitating payment transactions and deriving financial benefit from these violent and unethical games, is consistent with your corporate values and mission statements,” the letter states.
“We request that you demonstrate corporate social responsibility and immediately cease processing payments on Steam and Itch.io and any other platforms hosting similar games.”
Signatories to date are: Collective Shout, National Centre on Sexual Exploitation, (US), Exodus Cry, (US), Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (UK), FiLiA (UK), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia, along with Michael Salter, Professor and Director of Childlight East Asia and Pacific Hub, Kelly Humphries, survivor, speaker, advocate, DV & sexual violence consultant and Jon Rouse, former Argos child sexual abuse detective now Professor at AiLECS Labs, Monash University and Childlight Hub. Find the full letter here.
As well as the open letter, the executives have so far been sent more than 1000 emails from concerned individuals.
Contact: Caitlin Roper: caitlin@collectiveshout.org
Melinda Tankard Reist: mtr@collectiveshout.org
July 14, 2025
