Collective Shout

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Collective Shout

Basic information
Founded	2009
Legal structure	Private
Industry	Lobbying, Activism
Official website	https://www.collectiveshout.org/

Collective Shout (CS) is an Australian activist organization founded in 2009 by Melinda Tankard Reist. It identifies as a grassroots movement focused on challenging the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls in media, advertising, and popular culture. The group engages in lobbying, public campaigns, and petitions to advance its goals, which include opposing content it perceives as promoting sexual violence, exploitation, or harmful stereotypes.

Mission statement

CS aims to combat the sexual exploitation and objectification of women and girls. It campaigns against a range of issues, including sexualized advertising, pornography, violent video games, and the normalization of themes such as rape, incest, and child abuse in media.

Methods and campaigns

• The organization uses public petitions, open letters, and direct lobbying of corporations, payment processors, and governments to remove content or restrict access to material it deems harmful.

• Notable campaigns include protests against films like A Serbian Film, video games like Grand Theft Auto V and Detroit: Become Human, and the lobbying of payment providers to block transactions for certain adult games on platforms like Steam and Itch.io.

• It has also targeted advertisements, music lyrics, and events such as the Lingerie Football League and Sexpo exhibition.

Focus on protecting vulnerable groups

CS frames its mission as protecting women and girls from harm caused by media that objectifies or sexualizes them. Their campaigns are explicitly targeted at content they believe promotes or glorifies violence, abuse, and exploitation. From their viewpoint, they are pro-safety and pro-dignity rather than anti-consumer. They argue that consumers, especially women and children, are harmed by the very content they seek to remove.

Targeting illegal and harmful content

A significant portion of their campaign focuses on content they argue would be illegal in Australia, such as depictions of rape, incest, and child sexual abuse. They state that their initial target was games tagged with "rape" and "incest" on Steam. Campaigning for the removal of illegal content is not inherently anti-consumer; it can be framed as enforcing existing laws and social standards to protect society from harm.

Using established corporate channels

Their strategy of lobbying payment processors (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe) relies on appealing to the companies' own corporate social responsibility policies and existing terms of service, which often prohibit illegal content and certain extreme adult material. They are not asking for new laws banning content for consumers but are leveraging the existing contractual relationships between businesses. This working within a established capitalist framework rather than being anti-consumer.

Affiliations and partnerships

CS collaborates with a network of organizations, including anti-trafficking groups, child protection agencies, and conservative advocacy groups. Examples include the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA), Bravehearts, and the Australian Childhood Foundation.

Controversies and criticisms

• The organization has faced criticism for its campaigns against video games and media, with opponents arguing that its actions lead to financial censorship, disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ creators, and infringe on creative freedom.

• Some critics accuse CS of promoting moral panic and using emotionally charged language in its campaigns.

• The group has also been involved in legal battles, such as its victory against Sexpo in 2018 over the promotion of explicit content on public buses.

• Its 2025 campaign urging payment processors (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe) to stop processing payments for certain games on Steam and Itch.io raised concerns about financial censorship and the power of financial intermediaries to control online content.

Overall impact

CS has achieved significant visibility in Australia and internationally for its campaigns, resulting in tangible outcomes such as the removal of certain games, advertisements, and products. However, its methods and ideological stance have also sparked debate about censorship, freedom of expression, and the balance between protecting vulnerable groups and upholding artistic and creative rights.

Incidents

Protest against Grand Theft Auto V

In 2014, the group started a petition against Grand Theft Auto V it read, "It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment. The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get 'health' points." The video game was banned from two Australian department stores later that year.

Pressure campaign against payment processors

Main article: Valve allows ISPs and payment processors to censor content on Steam

In July 2025, Collective Shout launched a public campaign "demanding credit card companies and PayPal block payments" for games on Steam and Itch.io.

Itch.io responded by de-indexing games with explicit content on July 24. On July 31, they re-indexed free games with explicit content.

De-indexing continued on August 10th, this time of games with explicit content and of LGBTQ+ games without explicit content.

The group claims to have lobbied payment processors after sending 3,000 emails to Steam and receiving no response.

Open letter to payment processors

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Mr Alex Chriss, CEO and President, Paypal

Mr Michael Miebach, CEO, Mastercard

Mr Ryan McInerney, CEO, Visa

Mr Bruce Lowthers, CEO, Paysafe Limited

Mr Michael J. Shepherd Director, Interim CEO and President, Discover

Mr Takayoshi Futae, President, CEO and Chairman, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB)

Re: Your corporations facilitating and profiting from rape, incest and child sexual abuse game sales

We the undersigned are writing to request that you cease processing payments on gaming platforms which host rape, incest and child sexual abuse-themed games.

In April, we exposed the sale of rape simulation game ‘No Mercy’ on both Steam and Itch.io gaming platforms. In the game, players assume the persona of a man who rapes his female family members, including his mother and his aunt, as punishment for his mother’s infidelity. It was marketed as follows:

   In this game, you’ll either become every woman’s worst nightmare… or rather: the best dick they'll ever have. Your goal is simple: leave no pussy non-lucked, since that's the only thing they all want. Never take 'no' for an answer.

   Luck your mom, luck your auntie, and even luck your friend’s mom. Why not?

   Take what’s yours and show No Mercy.

The game was geo-blocked in Australia following Collective Shout’s complaint to the Australian Classification Board. Following our global viral campaign including a change.org petition signed by over 70,000 concerned individuals and attracting international media attention, the game was taken down in Canada and the UK, and pulled from Steam by the developer.

However we have since discovered hundreds of other games featuring rape, incest and child sexual abuse on both Steam and Itch.io. Our research has shown many of these games would breach Australian classification laws. Most of the content found within the games, including the graphics and the developers descriptions, are too distressing for us to make public.

A Collective Shout team member has conducted extensive research using a Steam account set up for this purpose. She has documented content including violent sexual torture of women, and children including incest related abuse involving family members.

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.

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.

We await your response.

Yours sincerely

Melinda Tankard Reist, Movement Director, Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation (AUS)

Haley McNamara, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Programs, National Center on Sexual Exploitation (US)

Michael Salter, Professor and Director of the Childlight East Asia and Pacific Hub, University of New South Wales (AUS)

Helen Taylor, Vice President of Impact, Exodus Cry (US)

Dr Tegan Larin, Public Officer, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia, CATWA (AUS)

Gemma Kelly, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, CEASE (UK)

Kelly Humphries, CSA survivor, speaker, advocate, DV & sexual violence consultant (AUS)

Sally Jackson, Trustee, Global Lead for Male Violence Against Women and Girls (MVAWG), FiLiA (UK)

Jon Rouse APM, Professor at AiLECS Labs Monash University and Childlight Hub (AUS)

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Alongside explicit content, the group also expressed a desire to remove Detroit: Become Human from gaming platforms for depictions of physical abuse against women and children.

The owner of the journalism website Vice allegedly instructed certain articles related to Collective Shout to be removed from their website due to "controversial subject matter." The author of the articles and several of her co-workers resigned soon afterwards in protest.

See also

• Steam