Sigh

[tygati]

*sigh* For those of you who haven't heard: Livejournal now provides the ability to filter adult content.

What this means for us writers, I haven't made up my mind about yet. -__- Blah.

Here's the affected settings page.

I can't lock my journal because I have so many lurkers and people without journals reading... I also personally object to giving out my full birthdate for various privacy reasons, so wtf do they expect to do about those of us who won't provide our year of birth, hmm? :P Oh, I see, they assume you're a kid. >.< Fine then. *sets frigging birthdate to 1901* :P Not like y'all don't know how old I am anyway; I've mentioned it several times. *shrug*

The stupid teenyboppers need to stay on Myspace. -_-

Wtf-ever. For now, I think I'm ignoring it.

Comments

[chilayse.livejournal.com]

My journal is locked down but i don't put stories in my journal primarily...so it's no big deal for me. I think the adult content thing is a wonderful tool for those that want to use it though.

[tygati.livejournal.com]

I object to censorship in general, and particularly when 'report' buttons come into the picture. From what I've seen on DeviantArt and Y!Gallery, those are just asking for people to abuse over and over, and the LiveJournal staff thus far hasn't shown themselves to have half an ounce of sense amongst the whole of them when it comes to stuff like that. Most likely it will be a repeat of Y!Gallery, where everything is subject to the personal opinions of the Powers That Be. Blah. -__-

[chilayse.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm not thrilled about the report button. I'm just kinda pretending it doesn't exist.

I like the filter idea though. However i think it'll be used by adults that just don't want to see dirty stuff on lj..not by kids.

[tygati.livejournal.com]

Oh, undoubtedly. If kids want to get something, they're more likely to succeed than an adult. -__- Hell, I got into slash when I was fourteen. Of course, back then they didn't care how old you were so long as you conducted yourself with proper decorum. Blah. x.x

[tmelange.livejournal.com]

>>so wtf do they expect to do about those of us who won't provide our year of birth,

Simply lie about your birthdate. Nothing says you have to give them the real date.

[tygati.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't be the first time I've done that, paranoid freak that I am. Just sort of seems to defeat the purpose if people just lie... Mmm. And it has a different feel, y'know, to purposefully present a falsehood rather than simply omitting information. I hate outright lying. x.x

[nikerymis.livejournal.com]

::headdesk:: I think I'm with you on the ignoring thing for now.

Though, crap, now I have to go see what I put in for my birthday year.

[aggybird.livejournal.com]

I think their ideas are so quaint - like kids who have the internet, and are online enough to have a livejournal, have not already seen more porn than a seventy-year-old man.

As one commenter said in the discussion, it isn't a ban on minors viewing explicit content, it is a ban on stupid minors viewing explicit content. lolz.

[skylark97.livejournal.com]

As one commenter said in the discussion, it isn't a ban on minors viewing explicit content, it is a ban on stupid minors viewing explicit content.

XD Amen to that. *snickers*

[skylark97.livejournal.com]

Someone else on my flist wanted to know why they couldn't just have buttons that you marked to say you were either over 18 or under 18. (And they could do the same with over 14 or under 14.) Wouldn't that make more sense than asking people to cough up info they are reluctant to cough up?

I mean, practically everything you see on TV about the net harps at you to not give away personal info, so it makes sense that people might be reluctant to put up things like birthdates and whatever.

*throws things at lj* I really, really, really hate that 6A bought them up. They've done nothing but be a royal pain in the ass. If parents want to be little nanny nazis when they're watching what their kids are doing on the net, then maybe they should actually, I don't know, watch their kids while they're on the net. I fail to see why it's my responsibility to keep little Janie from poking her nose into things she's been told she shouldn't be poking her nose into. That falls into the realm of being a parent. The internet was not made for children. It's an adult world.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

That's my problem as well. I am not here to babysit someone else's kids. A written warning on my part that this story contains such and such or is not suitable for people under a certain age is the only obligation I feel. After that, it's up to the parents to monitor what their kids do. Not mine. I especially don't like being told that I'm have to self-monitor.

And if I hear one more parent spout the "It takes a village to raise a child" line, I'm going to sit down with their kids and have a long, long, long discussion of about gay sex, porn, and BDSM and why I think all of those are OK in society. After all, if I have to raise a kid then I damn well get to impart my values to them.

[shattereternity.livejournal.com]

::pinches nose:: if i was into telling fortunes, i'd say this is just the tip of the iceberg, that said, i'm with you on the ignoring.

What I don't get are people snipping this way and that (sometimes just for the heck) and not taking into account that the internet is a very big sandbox, so if you're going to let the kiddies play in the sand, the best way is to take precautions at HOME cause the net is just too freaking big to successfully censor.

That said, I might as well check if i even imputed a birth year ... ::sigh:: i'm way to paranoid about giving out personal information

[tygati.livejournal.com]

Paranoia is good. Way back when we got into the 'net I think I was 13-14? (Remember the Prodigy/Compuserve days? Yeah. ^^;) And my mom totally drilled it into my head not to give away ANY personal information. It's obviously not as bad now that I'm an adult, but a lot of that paranoia still clings to me. Internet paranoia should be something ALL children learn. 9.9 I remember when stupid places would ask for an address and I'd give them: 13 Dead End Drive, Salem, CA, 90210. :) My 'name' was Kitty Kat... Mom's was better. She was Jessica Rabbit. ^___^

[hyperjirou.livejournal.com]

The flagging worries me as that sort of thing does get abused a lot. At least for now they're just applying filters to people who get flagged rather than suspending their accounts.

I agree that it's not going to stop teenagers. Honestly, I think lj's afraid parents are going to get on their case and are just trying to cover their asses. They're not doing this for the users.

On the other hand, they could have gone the way of ff.net and started banning adult stuff altogether.

[avalon13.livejournal.com]

HEY. RESENTING TEENY BOPPER COMMENT. Not that I'm...underage or anything. It's just that my wife is. Well off to lie....down. Yes, I'm off to lie down.

[hyperjirou.livejournal.com]

Good thing you aren't underage, or you wouldn't be able to read your own journal.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

I know someone who that happened to (sort of). They wrote a fairly explicit story when they were 15 and allowed it to be put up in a very popular archive. A year later, said archive went 18+ and you had to send proof of age. She literally was banned from reading her own story.

It was hysterical and sad at the same time.

[hyperjirou.livejournal.com]

Huh. The only archive I know of that required actual proof was Aestheticism back in the day. They started being really popular after I first got into yaoi/slash, and a lot of sites used their password system to hide their adult stuff. I remember getting very frustrated at the time. I sent out my ID nearly immediately after I turned 18. And, of course, right after that the practice died out. I wouldn't do that today, too paranoid.

[tsaiko.livejournal.com]

You guessed the archive. Aestheticism use to be open before late 1998 and was the biggest repository of yaoi fanfiction. Then in the US a law passed COPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Online_Protection_Act) which said among other things that you had to restrict access to all things that might be considered "harmful to minors." That's when Aestheticism changed.

Of course, there was an immediate injunction based on free speech rights. It's still be debated strangely enough. However, with the injunction in place, sites don't have to follow the rules. That's why many went onto some sort of password system and others didn't.

[hyperjirou.livejournal.com]

You know, that explains quite a bit. 1998 was the year I got into yaoi, and it explains why password protected sites kept increasing.

[avalon13.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA. YES. OF COURSE. NOT UNDERAGE, I MEAN. WOW, IS IT HOT IN HERE OR WHAT?

[tygati.livejournal.com]

Heh. Not really sure how old you are, but I was kinda worrying about how this idiot thing might affect Graphite... *snugs*

[avalon13.livejournal.com]

Nikk's the youngest out of all of use, I think. Or was it Loki? Also, a lady never reveals her true age. *flutters eyelashes*

[tygati.livejournal.com]

*snerk* Yeah, I'm sure. <3

[arinan.livejournal.com]

What I really don't understand, and never have, is what stops people from lying about their ages? I've habitually lied about my age on the internet because it's none of their damn business how old I am. The people who have qualms about lying are probably not the ones that are being targeted in the first place.

This policy seems to be operating on the weird assumption that people never lie and are kind understanding citizens that only want us all to get along.


Related, but not identical side issue. It doesn't make sense to me that when a person is 18 they automatically gain some super power of adulthood that makes it ok for them to deal with naked people and sex. I understand keeping that stuff away from children, but I also define child as before puberty.

Teenagers seem like a grey area to me. Especially since the age of consent is 16 in most of the US, so according to 6A logic it's not ok for teenagers who could be having sex in RL to read about sex online. Also, do they realize how much of the stuff is written by "underage" people? Furthermore I have not yet seen conclusive evidence that if a 14 year old sees porn it will scar them for life. I think I started reading adult books when I was 12. I first read smut on the internet when I was 13 (i was in it for the plot, not the sex, but they came as a package deal). That's all terribly underage, but I have yet to see any ill effects.

Umm, I think this wandered off into my pet peeves about a bunch of things. Sorry.

Anyway.

I like the idea of being able to apply filters. That's a nice option to have, but I fear the practice is not going to work at all. (also half the logic doesn't make any sense)

Also I think I liked it better when people judged your age based on how you acted. That seems more reasonable.

[rialet.livejournal.com]

It does seem rather silly. And unliikely to work.

I wonder what I put in for my birthdate...*wanders off to check*

[bitchypixii.livejournal.com]

Urgh. x.x Censorship.

Personally, I think it's stupid. LJ is not my mama. And my mama knows perfectly well what I do on the internet and she lets me do it because she trusts me. This is seriously infringing on parent's rights.

Not to mention - there's really nothing you can do that will prevent minors from viewing adult content if they truly want to, and if they don't, normally they like to leave the explicitness that they can handle up to their personal opinions. Not LJ's. Or at least that's my experience.

I'm going to ignore this unless I find that I'm suddenly unable to access some of the pages I like to visit. And fume about people that don't know me thinking they can control my actions and judge my maturity level.