Mature Content - the DA controversy

[oO Starling Oo]

As you may or may not know, Deviant Art is now blocking all people under 18 from viewing pictures that contain "Mature Content", even if it is their own deviation. How does this effect you? Some argue that since it is an artistic community, it is the right of everyone to view the works of others. Others say that people abuse this former right to view n***s as porn. Does censorship play into this? Is the general public too sensitive to suggestive images? At what point should we really consider an image mature? Are all n***s "tasteful"? What about freedom of speech and press, does the ban violate our freedom of expression?

State your case!  

[trinity343]

well i personally support the ban of mature content of under 18. i agree with those that say the nude images can be viewed as porn (and in my personally opinion are porn anyway). i personally can attest to this b/c i have problems with porn that i'm trying to get out of and sometimes the images on deviant make it hard to do that b/c i can get caught up in looking at those pictures and such...most of the time without thinking about it...it doesn't matter if a person views it as 'just art' or not the fact that nude images are there can still raise the same emotions and desires that professional...and unprofessional...porn can bring a person...so that's my case  

[mcleod_legacy]

I don't care either way.... I see the merit in both sides of the fence and the flaws... banning it is not gonna stop people who want to see it bad enough from seeing it, and no ban is just gonna make it more prevelant. There is more to both sides.

I've drawn images with nudity and flagged them as mature... I have had people flame me for them being pornographic because the subject was unclothed, regardless of the fact that she was positioned so that her breasts and crotch were hidden from view by her hair and leg. It was an image depicting Innocence (a gat girl playing with a ball of yarn, unaware of her nudity or its impact), to me that is not in the least pornographic.

As for how others view it, what do we classify as pornography?
Nudity? well animals are nude, there are many tribes of people (even so called civilized groups) that are nude and there is nothing sexual about it.
Is it by the awakening of sexual desire? Well , I've met people who have gotten off to a cheese sandwich... does that make cheddar into smut?

Now before you jump at me for being one sided, I shall now give the reasons for the ban.

Its the same reason we have R-rated movies, M rated games, and such.... An inherent need to protect children from advanced awareness prior to their maturity to handle it in an adult fashion. (Some adults are more immature than many kids and vice versa but we won't go there) Some parents use deviantart as a way to expose their children to culture. my aunt uses it so that she can show my cousins how good their cousin is (we're a family of artists)... Nudity is offensive to some and they and others do not want YOUNG children exposed to it or graphic violence.


problem is; that just like Yahoo!'s mature setting, all you have to do is lie about your age when you make an account.  

[megamishizun]

personally i would rather continue seeing more or less tasteful art. so, i'm glad they take it away. cauz i know for a fact that over 18 stuff would take over real fast and i personally wouldn't go on Deviantart as much  

[oO Starling Oo]

well, it had always been there, and it was still able to be avoided. There was a setting that would make the "Mature Content filter block" image appear instead of the picture. Now it's just gone altogether, for the under age anyway.

I don't really care either way. I think artistic n***s is a rather difficult thing to pull off on the internet. It's a very different setting then a mature college art class, so I can definitely see the cases of people abusing art for uh...other purposes.  

[Drencrom Radosty]

I don't support it.
Alot of people mature their things, just for the sheer fear factor that DA might delete it, for 'inappropriate' content.

Not to mention that I can't see half of my favorites.
I think it should be choice, and they should at least still have the 'click if you'd like to view'

Also, what makes a different, a child can just as easily LIE to make themselves older on a new account..  

[mcleod_legacy]

Drencrom Radosty

I don't support it.
Alot of people mature their things, just for the sheer fear factor that DA might delete it, for 'inappropriate' content.

Not to mention that I can't see half of my favorites.
I think it should be choice, and they should at least still have the 'click if you'd like to view'

Also, what makes a different, a child can just as easily LIE to make themselves older on a new account..

Exactly, a friend of mine got his Yahoo! Group deleted and his account banned cause some kid lied about his age on Yahoos lil AVS thing and got into where he wasn't supposed to and the kids mom found out.  

[MissJennaGan]

I don't agree with it because of how simple it is to go around it

What is the point in the mature content filter when all I had to do was make a new account and se all the stuff I couldn't

Some of the mature content is tasteless, I do agree

But this is the internet! There are many loopholes/hacks to get into things if you look and try hard enough  

[Acerbic Song]

In my opinion, it's a good change.
I myself am not yet 18, but dA is respecting the rights of artists to set the age of who can view their work or not and also preventing being sued by doing this.

(i.e on the artist rights, $lolly explained one reason was that fetish artists were a bit shocked by 14 year olds faving their artwork. the improved filter now lets the artists themselves decide who can view their artwork)

If any of you would like some links that explain the change and future changes to the mature content system in more detail,

$realitysquared's journal

$lolly's journal (scroll down to the journal with "DJ" in the title, read that, and work up from there)

$moonbeam13's journal

If you're lazy, $lolly's journals would be the most comprehensive.

On another note, you should've seen the Complaints forum when this happened. You had to wade through all of the topics about this. Ugh.

~Song  

[Courtesan Brigitte]

This is a TEMPORARY solution to the kids-seeing-porn problem. Part of the solution is to clean up the galleries that allow n***s, and get the camera whores off to wherever it is they belong. But the likely permanant solution will feature artist controls, so a responsible artist can judge whether the art should be viewable by what age groups. Some art n***s are appropriate for all ages and some simply aren't--and that's ok, and the artist knows best which his or her deviations fall under.

I can't speak for violence... some of the stuff on dA I think I'm too young for.  

[Vinyl Dream]

I beleive its just a way to shove it in our faces, basically admitting that "If you are under 18, you are too immature to view and critique a mature drawing in a mature matter". What bull is this?!

Im 16, ive been with DA since I was a freshman and I enjoy it quite frankly. What I dont understand is Why now? Why must we put this temp ban on 18-under when the site has done well without it since they started!
Im not saying that its a HORRIBLE thing but how are we suppose to learn if the so called "porn" is censored on DA. Sure, I can understand 15-under because they dont have to brain cells to even act mature(no offense to those that do).

Ive gotten the most rudest and disgusting comments on my most "mature" peices but thats life! you wont go anywhere without one bozo ruining the mood of an art peice.
I really think once they put in a perma-solution that they allow the ARTIST to check off if they will allow 18-under people to see. How else am I going to learn anatomy if the damn site decides to never let me see it?
No, im not being the niave teen, Its logical isnt it?

Plus, the rules clearly state make the mature peices tasteful. If a person cannot deal with that then they deserve a ban no matter what, but I guess we all cant deal with those people head on every time :/  

[BlueGam]

Well, I think it is a good idea, but there are too many ways to get around this idea, thanks to this being the good old internet.  

[Ellemar]

I dont support it. I mean, okay, I get why they put it, for the younger kids there, but it bothers me because I cant look at some of my favourites anymore.

People automatically assume that if there's breasts in it, it's porn. What about tasteful nudity?  

[Zombie Knickers]

Boku wa kimi no
V a n i l l a

I'm 15 years old and I believe Art is Art. I draw things that are classed as mature (I've only uploaded one of those pictures and it's in my scraps). I think it's good for some people not for others. It's stopping me seeing some work I really love just because it's got a mature rating

Gackt

 

[Candy Ashtray]

I made a new account for pure viewing because many deviations are put under "mature content" for stupid reasons, such as mild cussing. D: