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corruption of minors
Sep. 15th, 2007 15:37somebody sends you a personal message on a bulletin board requesting a manga depicting explicit sexual situations for which you mentioned you have the scanlation. from their userinfo it appears that they're in the US and that they're 14.
what do you do?
it's sort of an interesting dilemma. i don't actually believe in deciding for total strangers what they should and shouldn't read, whether or not they're legal minors. that is -- at best -- their parents' domain. heck, they might have their parents' consent because their parents might be rather more progressive than US law. but even beyond that, i read lots of things at 14 which my religious zealot parents didn't want me to read (and which the library wouldn't lend me, but i sat in the stacks and read it right there). i am not even just talking about smut, i am talking about serious sex ed, and i am even more so talking about fiction that was deemed "above" my comprehension (i wasn't much interested in smut, but very much interested in fiction way beyond the young adult genre). i've always hated that, and i don't want to contribute to this idiocy for anyone else. i was not scarred for life by anything "inappropriate" i read during my so-called impressionable years. it all broadened my horizons, in one way or another.
also, they might not actually be 14 (though they're possibly even younger, *heh*, to get past the COPPA barrier on that website). but they could also be older -- i enter false information about my vital stats on most websites because it's none of their admins' business what my actual info is. and, if i hadn't ever looked at the userinfo, i would be blessedly ignorant of this person's age altogether.
i guess theoretically the parents of an american minor could come after me if i handed that person a link to smut manga. would a disclaimer (such as "by following this link you are certifying that you are of legal age in your jurisdiction or have the permission of your guardian to view sexually explicit material, or you're lying to me in order to do what you want") protect me? maybe without that last part, *snrk*.
no, i am not actually spending sleepless nights over this sort of thing. just pondering what sort of climate the "protect the childrun" hysteria has created that this even occurs to me.
what do you do?
it's sort of an interesting dilemma. i don't actually believe in deciding for total strangers what they should and shouldn't read, whether or not they're legal minors. that is -- at best -- their parents' domain. heck, they might have their parents' consent because their parents might be rather more progressive than US law. but even beyond that, i read lots of things at 14 which my religious zealot parents didn't want me to read (and which the library wouldn't lend me, but i sat in the stacks and read it right there). i am not even just talking about smut, i am talking about serious sex ed, and i am even more so talking about fiction that was deemed "above" my comprehension (i wasn't much interested in smut, but very much interested in fiction way beyond the young adult genre). i've always hated that, and i don't want to contribute to this idiocy for anyone else. i was not scarred for life by anything "inappropriate" i read during my so-called impressionable years. it all broadened my horizons, in one way or another.
also, they might not actually be 14 (though they're possibly even younger, *heh*, to get past the COPPA barrier on that website). but they could also be older -- i enter false information about my vital stats on most websites because it's none of their admins' business what my actual info is. and, if i hadn't ever looked at the userinfo, i would be blessedly ignorant of this person's age altogether.
i guess theoretically the parents of an american minor could come after me if i handed that person a link to smut manga. would a disclaimer (such as "by following this link you are certifying that you are of legal age in your jurisdiction or have the permission of your guardian to view sexually explicit material, or you're lying to me in order to do what you want") protect me? maybe without that last part, *snrk*.
no, i am not actually spending sleepless nights over this sort of thing. just pondering what sort of climate the "protect the childrun" hysteria has created that this even occurs to me.
