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Adult vs Erotica

That is really gross.

Good thread Shank.

There's a difference between talking about sex and writing about illicit sex with the intention of arousal. Though I'll say that I don't think talking about sex in general is a big deal, considering it's a part of life. It's the unrealistic views of it that tend to become the problem.

I also don't know if it's been changed. If there's some sort of glitch then you could possibly send a ticket on it

I should probably add that the original age for both Adult and Erotica was 18. It was taken down because of numerous complaints or something.

"I also don't like the trend to what seems to me 'distorted' sex act descriptions in some writings."

That, to me, is one of the biggest parts of this argument. It's one thing when two characters have sex in a story, considering (as I've said before) it's truly a part of life. However, it's when it becomes unrealistic where the problem comes in.

This idea is not to protect the younger crowd, but rather to let their minds mature enough to know the reality of love and sex before the more twisted variations on the latter are openly presented to them.

Although, in a way, I guess that it's still for their protection... just with a more long-term goal

Does it count if I complain about being affected negatively by seeing younger-than-eighteens getting a distorted view of sex from stories they're allowed to read on your site? They might not know it's distorted, but many, perhaps most, adults will easily be able to tell what's realistic and what's not.

I'm disturbed by the thought of kids not old enough to drive knowing more distorted sex info than I do. And learning it on a site I frequent. *borrows Cactus Jack's nauseous emoticon*

Kids may lie, true, but so do adults. "They'll lie more if we don't let them see it now" is pretty weak. I think it's a character issue, on an individual basis. If one is the type to deceive authority, age limits won't matter. If one is willing to consider that authority sometimes has good reasons for doing what it does, one won't have an issue with age rules.

Letting kids who might babysit my children read erotica here does affect me personally, and I'm not enjoying the sensation. [/]

Here's the thing: You had the under-eighteen group whining before about how they were "mature" enough to view such things. Is this whining truly evident of their maturity? I believe that by lowering the age restriction, you've given access to the wrong people, considering that it's true that some of them may be mature enough, but these probably weren't the people complaining for the most part.

Now you have the over-eighteen group whining about previous actions. Sure, it may not be evident of our maturity (again) but our intentions are different, as we aren't looking for permission to "get off" while reading. Valkyrie explains this pretty well here, so I'll leave it at that.

The point I'm trying to make here is that you've got to pick who you'd rather fight: the kids who will be old enough to view adult content in a few years at most, or the adults who don't want the kids to view their own adult content.

I hope you'll at least consider my other idea wherein a new age-restrictive tag would be made that allows only adults (18+) to view stories. This would be a simple code, I'm sure, and it would give those adults who don't want some of their writings to be viewed by minors a chance at censoring themselves. I'm sure I can speak for Andy on this one.

I do agree with everything you're saying here, as I can understand that finding what works is the goal of any management team. However, I'll make a point similar to one of Valkyrie's: They say that rules are meant to be broken, with the intention that if there were no rules, there'd be nothing to break. It's like, if you get rid of a law, then the action that law prohibited would no longer be illegal. However, some of the people who end up doing that action have probably been doing it during much of the duration that the action was illegal, while other law-abiding citizens had never done it before.

The same principle applies here. There are going to be those who go against the rules because it's what they want to do, while others who respect the rules here may just shrug it off and wait until they're old enough.

I doubt you'll change your mind, but I'd be more than satisfied if you could add that extra tag.

Thank you for your time again

I felt Lady Chatterley's Lover was a beautifully written book. It did go against the more's of the time, partly I think, because of it being Constance and the gardener.

I wonder if it had been written about two people of the same 'social' standing would it have had the same impact in the courts?

It's rather odd, but nobody worried about Henry Fielding's "Tom Jones", though I know "The Adventures of Moll Flanders" got a bit of a banning at one time.

If a kid's traumatised by what they see, they shouldn't have looked..

I'm sorry, but that argument won't go down too well in a court of law if that kid's parents decide to prosecute or sue.

It kind of seems like you think I want all adult content to be kept from the under-18's. More specifically, what I want is to block out the unrealistic sex images that erotica tends to convey.

And it's been reiterated multiple times by people on both sides that yes, if someone wants to view it, they will find a way around the rules. Does it make it right though? It's circumvention, and it's actually a bit disrespectful to those in charge who make, maintain, and enforce the rules.

Besides, We've pretty much reached a compromise, in which a new 18+ tag (though I don't know what it will be called yet) will be created for authors to use at their own discretion. I think this is fair, because I would personally feel pretty creepy if a minor was viewing my erotic material (I have none, btw) and viewing it in its fullest intention.