For those who don't visit fanficrants....

[allana]

Here is a debate which may be of interest. A 16 year old, is attempting to argue that she should be allowed to read 18+ material online as she is mature enough.

I anticipate that this will end up on fandom_wank before close of play today. (I also suspect trolling, but you never know--it might be a serious question!)

ETA. Wanked.

PS. How does one quantify/test maturity? Is there a blood test now? :P

Comments

[glammetalkitten.livejournal.com]

That muppet has been quite busy making a fool of herself in the last few days on that comm, hasn't she!

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

This was the first time I'd noticed her. Alas, I couldn't resist getting drawn into it.

I forgot the golden rule... never argue with children. It is rarely satisfying.

[silicondreams.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I think I can understand that - mostly because I've done that myself. But, while doing so, I actually knew I was doing something I shouldn't do. Laws are laws, no matter how "mature" you feel. It doesn't mean you can't break 'em, but...they're there for a reason.

And surely there isn't a maturity test around. If there was, I suspect a lot of "adults" won't pass it. ;)

BTW, I suspect trolling, too.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

I bet you didn't post a whine/wank about it and draw huge amounts of attention to yourself? If the internet had been available to me, when I was her age, then I probably would have tried to read 18+ fic. I'm pretty sure that I'd have backed away pretty quickly if I came across something like Manipulation. I'd have fun a fucking mile from anything involving blood too.

This kid isn't even close to passing a maturity test :P I personally think that there are levels of maturity, like in a computer game. You run around getting experience, then you find the key/object/whatever and progress to the next level. Each level is harder and is different for everyone. No one ever reaches the end, of course ;)

So, while she may be mature enough to read a soft-R Jackie Collins book, which usually relatively normal stuff in the bedroom, she's not mature enough (in my esteemed opinion) to read RPS master/slave stuff :P At this rate, she should try again when thirty.

[screwthedaisies.livejournal.com]

I would have killed to get my hands on this kind of stuff when I was fifteen (and I'd have failed school and become a smelly hermit crouched around my computer once I did 'cause I wouldn't have been able to tear myself away. Um. Anway....). I was reading "The Story of O" at age twelve.

I'm not saying I was mature in any sense or degree of the word at age twelve. Or fourteen. Or seventeen. Thirty, I think, was the magic age.

I think that the stuff I write now, even the most hardcore of it, is less damaging to a fourteen-year-old's psyche than the stuff I would have written when I was fourteen if I'd had the guts to put it on paper. There tends to be (though not necessary large) consequences in my stories now whereas as a teenager, well, you know, it was the typical rapee-loves-his-raper-no-matter-how-awful-he-is stuff.

That said, I don't want to know that a fourteen year old read anything of mine. I especially don't want to hear it from their mouths because I'm not writing for fourteen year olds. They aren't in my audience; they're of no consquence; I do not want to engage in dialogue with them about my stories, their stories, or adult relationships between characters. It's like having a gab with the girls and your six-year-old wants to join in. Cute that she wants to belong, but she can't. She's not capable. She might feel like a "big girl," ready to sip tea and laugh about the funny things her daddy does, but she only gets half the jokes (just like I only "got" half of "The Story of O"), and it makes it all very fucking tedious the minute the cuteness wears off (which is normally in under three minutes).

Regardless of how mature any sixteen-year-old thinks she is (and she may very well be mature for a sixteen-year-old, but mature for a sixteen-year-old is still not mature, you know? Her head may be mostly level, but she lacks the life experience (and the minute she draws a breath to tell you about all the experience she damn well has had, she slips back to the average maturity level of a sixteen-year-old)) (what was I saying? Oh yes....) Regardless of how mature any sixteen-year-old thinks she is.... (Nope, totally forgot where I was going with this. I probably covered it in the "lack of experience" aside. *sigh*)

Well. Whatever. The law is our side; no 18-year-olds accessing the adult stuff. :D And the law makes life so much simpler than having to attempt to explain to someone who thinks she knows everything that, well, she sure as fucking fuck doesn't.

[silicondreams.livejournal.com]

I bet you didn't post a whine/wank about it and draw huge amounts of attention to yourself?

Well, I was underage, not stupid. ;) If you want to break the rules and read something you feel ready to read (even if you're not, but you'll never know until you try), well...keep at least your head down, kid.

[heliotic.livejournal.com]

Exactly, if she was mature enough, she'd realise that there is no 'give' in the interpretation of the law, and she'd wait.

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

Hello, stranger! *hugs* Yes, if she was mature enough, she wouldn't have wanked about the subject in the first place. Still, it was an afternoon of entertainment!

[heliotic.livejournal.com]

Stranger!

Hmph!

I have always been here :)

PS: HI!

[glam-ang.livejournal.com]

You've been way quiet! Most unlike you! (Is it all the gay porn? :P)

[heliotic.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have much of an opinion on gay porn!

But I haven't had much to say lately about anything really :)