Nothing’s Ever Locked

I strongly disagree. I participated in fandom way before I turned 18.

sure, fandom space, as well as anything that is on the internet, can be 18+ and not suitable for minors (but even then, that does not mean “minors must not engage with these things” — I read smut and watched porn when I was a minor, what matters isn’t whether or not they engage with “adult contents”, what matters is if they can safely consume/engage with stuff without revealing their personal information online and jeopardizing their own safety). but just like anything else on the internet, there are spaces, including fandom space, that minors can safely enjoy.

also fandom is about fun and having a source of comfort/a temporary getaway from reality when/if things are hard.

minors have just as much rights — to enjoy fandom space and have these fandom space as their source of comfort — as adults do.

it’s extremely selfish to try to gatekeep these to adults only.

archive of our own is an archive. not a social media.

archive of our own was built with the stance that there would be no censorship, because other platforms already had censorship where some things that were taboo were reported/removed. ao3 was built with the purpose that all of these works, that were not allowed on other platforms, would be allowed on ao3.

the archive will house anything that’s considered fanworks. so no, you cannot report this fic because it portrays in explicit details taboo topics about xyz, you cannot report that fic because it romanticizes and glorifies xyz. ao3 will not remove any of those fics, because whether or not you like it, those fics do not go against ao3’s terms of service.

“but these things are not allowed on other platforms” that’s precisely why ao3 was created, to house and give a platform to these things that were censored/banned/removed from other platforms.

if you have a problem with this, you can use other platforms to post and read fanfics

"pay attention"

"everything connects"

"focus"