Hey don't respond if this strikes you as a bad-faith "gotcha!" or thought-ending cliche etc. I'm not trying to stir up shit. I literally do just have a prickly question.
So I'm pretty close to proship. If not completely there. I don't really mind it/most of it. But i was also exposed to certain kinds of pornography at too young an age, and I know it messed up my view of the world. I know if a kid was given the 'right' sort of material for a long enough period, they could be groomed into illicit acts, and regardless of they do get raped by an adult, they will retain a significant amount of trauma regarding it for life. And i'm going to be honest, kids are kind of stupid. I was stupid. As much as you try to teach them to avoid certain areas of the internet, they will find ways to test limits.
Since I know the kids at least don't know much better, I really don't like the whole culture around 'barely legal' (it's legal i don't care about this specifically but whatever), around shipping underage characters with adults, around being attracted to minors-- even if fictional-- as if it's a joke.
It probably won't lead any behavioral issues. But some people who engage in it do go track down actual csam of real children. I was a lurker in a circle that would vaguely reference porn about incest (again. don't care. i have opinions but not a problem to me the way I do with 'plausible deniability' child sexual abuse material) and it never being clear if it were actors or if both parties were of age; again, because it was only vaguely described. Beyond that, there is apparently an established pattern with child rapists where they start small, start with jokes and drawn cartoons and then slowly but steadily escalate.
If I acknowledge the regulation of media for its content or subjective standards of 'obscenity' will only lead towards fascistic suppression of narratives not congruent with ruling propaganda, do I have to defend the moral/legal 'grey area' of specifically underage characters engaging in sexual acts where their youth is the forefront of the media?
I can't. I just. I don't want anyone to think it's okay for a teacher to make advances on a student and it be 'fine' because 'the student wants it too.'
And when I say this, trust me, I don't care about the student/teacher kink stuff. Fuck it. I care about the stuff were it's clear they would have gone lower if they could or where it's sex with toddlers or small children being 'at the helm' so it's 'clearly not the adults fault, they came onto me'.
I care about the stuff that reads like a snuff film without being acknowledged as such. I care about the stuff that tries to prove a canon character is a pedophile in [insert awkward verbal interaction] because it's more engaging to view a piece of media exclusively through the lens of shota/lolicon than actually engage with the text. I care about the material where it's specifically trying to desensitize people to the idea of sex with a population that cannot consent. I care about the meta-conversations where the material isn't framed as "oooh mr character is a bad bad man wonder what will hApPeN" but rather "Mr. character SHOULD bad-touch his child."
I don't know if this makes any sense. I'm against censorship. But I also don't want to be around people who fantasize about sex with minors, and I especially don't want to be around the people who... seem a bit to 'into' it to be joking. These are children. Children cannot defend themselves and have no where to go if something happens to them by their caretakers. It will stick with them for the rest of their lives, including wrecking their ability to perceive threats and maintain close relationships. They don't forget and they can't give informed consent. There is fic/art/etc out there that really seems to cross the line from speculative or transformative or however you want to define artistic license to something actively promoting/servicing the population of child-rapists/potential child-rapists.
Can there not be some amount of nuance in terms of intra-community maintenance where certain actions regarding specifically children are discouraged? I am worried. I wouldn't even be asking this question if it weren't specifically the internet that got me access to too much too fast.
Anyway, if you read this far, thanks! And I'm sorry for the inflammatory ask. I legitimately don't believe in censorship; I've been struggling with this piece of cognitive dissonance for a while now and wanted to ask someone who knew what they were talking about.
no yeah i get it- i think it all comes down to you personally might not like that type of content but in the end other people are allowed to do and like things in fiction. both sides are completely valid imo
