- General
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Ideas
XXXXX-topics only for adults
Hello!
So, I realize that this is a topic, that has been discussed a lot on the different pages, but I can't seem to find a suggestion for it here on the feedback-page: Sex and the likes in topics!
It's wonderful, that there's the rating-system for topics, but I believe it's somewhat insufficient regarding the protection of our younger users - because in spite of the rating-system, any user can access any topic on the site, and I know from myself, that I don't think twice before accepting the warning, that pops up when entering a higher rated topic.
My suggestion would be this:
Make it impossible for users under the age of 15/18/21(whatever is most suitable) to enter topics or create topics with a rating of XXXXX.
So people would just get a message saying 'This topic is rated XXXXX. We're sorry, but due to the content of this topic, only users of the age 18 or above are allowed to enter.'
What about the Prefects? This particular group of users should of course be excepted from the rule, since their job is to monitor all forums and topics on the site. They should be able to enter XXXXX-topics, but not create them for themselves.
The inspiration to these thoughts was me stumbling across a topic with a very detailed sexual scene. I found myself a bit shocked and a tad bit shaken - though my IRL age is 24 - so I can only imagine, what even younger persons would feel, reading things like that.
We should do our utmost best to keep our younger users safe!
Answer
I thought sex wasn't allowed in highest rated topics, neither.
Next question would be if you mean the character age or the RL age, I'm not quite sure about that.
I think it wouldn't be bad not to allow entering such a topic, but I guess to forbid the creating would be a little critical. Because I think, if <18s want to write sex scenes and can't create XXXXX-rated topics, they just start sex scenes in easier rated topics to avoid that rule. That kinda would destroy the sense of the rating-system.
1.
Well, on both the UK and the DK site, sex is allowed. If you're on US, it's not allowed. I believe it's something the sites decide for themselves.
2.
And to answer your next question, it's of course IRL age, as I refer to 'users' and not 'characters'.
3.
- The difference is, that sex is only allowed in the highest rated topics (XXXXX), which is why implementing my suggestion would allow only users with IRL age above 18(or whatever age it decided) to create such topic.
- This means, that while younger users might try to create a lower rated sex-topic, it would be against the rules, and Prefects could therefore put an end to it.
- As it is right now (on UK and DK, at least), everyone can and are allowed to create a XXXXX-rated topic and thereby also a topic concerning sex.
SO, I believe the sense of the rating-system would stay intact.
We don't want to age restrict as we think users should be able to see what they want, if they want.
What we don't want, is to show something they don't want. That is why we use the XXXXX rating system.
That was a fine reasoning though. If we age restricted, users who wanted to see that material would use a false age. We already make it clear that younger users should be wary of 5X topics, but that's the best we can do in terms of prevention. Anyone 13+ should be able to distinguish between the ratings easily, but we can't force them to follow that warning especially when many people simply chose 5X without including any 5X parameter content.
Customer support service by UserEcho
We don't want to age restrict as we think users should be able to see what they want, if they want.
What we don't want, is to show something they don't want. That is why we use the XXXXX rating system.