Good morning! Iâm salty.
I think we, as a general community, need to start taking this little moment more seriously.
This, right here? This is asking for consent. Itâs a legal necessity, yes, but it is also you, the reader, actively consenting to see adult content; and in doing so, saying that you are of an age to see it, and that youâre emotionally capable of handling it.
You find the content you find behind this warning disgusting, horrifying, upsetting, triggering? You consented. You said you could handle it, and you were able to back out at any time. You take responsibility for yourself when you click through this, and so long as the creator used warnings and tags correctly, you bear full responsibility for its impact on you.
âChildren are going to lie about their ageâ is probably true, but thatâs the problem of them and the people who are responsible for them, not the people that they lie to.
If youâre not prepared to see adult content, created by and for adults, donât fucking click through this. And if you do, for all thatâs holy, donât blame anyone else for it.
This needs to be reblogged today.
Consenting to see adult content doesnât mean you should have to see a bunch of shit romanticizing incest and pedophilia you walnut
Except this is the last line of consent before the actual work. So if youâre at this button you have already done the following:
1) chosen to go onto AO3 in the first place
2) chosen the fandom you wish to read about
3) had the chance to filter for the things you do want to see like a specific pairing or a specific AU
4) had the chance to specifically filter out any tags you donât want to see like, oh I donât know, incest and non-con and dub-con and paedophilia
5) had the chance to set the rating level if you wish to remove any explicit content at all
6) have read the summary of the story, which arenât always great but are the only indicator of what the story will be like writing wise so something about it was good enough for you to click on it.
7) have read the tags of the story which will tell you what is actually in the story. If you have used filters to remove stories with things you donât want then there shouldnât be anything in here thatâs a shock to you but maybe there is. Thatâs why the tags are there for you to check for yourself.
8) Then you have to actually click on the story. You cannot see anything other than the summary or the tags without personally deciding that you are going to open and read this story.
9) Only here, at step number nine, do you get to the adult content warning pictured above. You have been through eight different steps, the last six of which have also been opportunities for you to see that this has adult content. And AO3 has *STILL* stopped you to ask one last time âare you sure you want to read this because it has things that only adults should see in itâ.
If after this point you are reading incest and paedophilia then itâs probably because you specifically went looking for it.
You walnut.
This is the most beautiful thing that I have seen about ao3
if someone puts a sign on the road to the water hole that says âthere are sharks in the water hole,â and you read it and go
hmm nah still wanna go in the hole
and then someone puts a bunch of signs around the water hole being like âthere are sharks hereâ âdo not swimâ âswim at your own perilâ âthey are man-eating sharksâ âthey were trained by evil villains to crave the flesh of humansâ âsincerely donât go in the water holeâ
and you still read it and go
hmm nah but I wanna go in the hole
at that point you forfeit the right to get upset with the hole owner that you went into the hole and now youâre getting chewed on
the hole was properly tagged
that you are now getting gnawed on is your own doing
