Hey All,
Today I wish to address in more detail the (in)famous no erotic content policy which has earned us both admiration and hate since the site’s creation. We aren’t here to drag your libido behind a dark alley and murder it, we are doing what is best for the community.
Let's get down to it, shall we?
Is writing erotic content Illegal?
Yes and no. The rest of this article should hopefully explain why this is the case.
Is erotic writing protected as a written work or piece of literature?
In the United States and other countries it is actually legal for authors to write erotic content that describes sexual activities, usually with no limit, that can include fictional minors. We call this smut - smut is legal.
However, communications on RpNation, social media sites and any other form of online communications (chat rooms, etc) are not protected under this law. No good judge or jury will give you that consideration. Online communications are not published written works. If that argument was valid then no one would end up on the sex offender’s registry for sexting (which happens, even without pictures).
What if I claim I don’t know their age?
Lack of knowledge is not a valid defense in most states in USA and under a certain age, it automatically gets invalidated even if it is legal in that specific part. (Looking at you, 12-13 year old children pretending to be older).
Romeo and Juliet Law:
The Romeo and Juliet law is a simple one, it is meant to allow teens to be teens and not to be punished. It works as follows.
What the law considers the “victim” has to be at least 14 years of age and the “suspect” is within 4 years of age. Less than 5 American states have this in effect to its fullest, most states have watered down litigation and laws with no real certainty. Most states include in this weaker Romeo and Juliet versions that they do not consider lack of knowledge a valid defence. In some states, the Romeo and Juliet law only applies to physical contact - it may not apply to written content.
The law is used arbitrarily, meaning that its protection can be dismissed by the court at any point in time, but that’s not the worst part. For it even to apply, both parties have to agree that it was consensual to begin with.
What if I am a minor and want to have fun with another minor?
It really depends on the location, but to this day, teens who have sex with other teens are getting sent to trial and convicted. Some states allow children of 16 to have sex with those under 18 (16 and 17 basically) but that shouldn’t be used as a defense to allow erotic content due to the fact that it is not 100 percent protective.
Well, I don’t live in the US, so I don’t have to follow these rules - right?
The site is hosted in America, and our site owner lives there, so yes - yes you do. Even if your country does not have child protection laws (most do, and some of them are much stricter than those in the US), we could still get in trouble for having your content on our site.
You may be tried by these laws if the minor you roleplay with is American.
Wizard, does this really matter?
In our modern and more liberal society, teens and such are having romantic relationships more than ever, things like this are not often reported - so they’re not often issues. Maybe the law will be updated one day to reflect the fact that teenagers are more educated and active then ever. Old laws are still laws, and as they are now, we could still get in trouble as a result of a phone call or email to the authorities.
Heck, even if going to jail is the worst apocalyptic scenario, the thing that can happen easiest is fake claims to our hosts. We’d be taken down for weeks for investigation. Hosts do this all the time even for fake DMCA requests, child endangerment, and other stuff. It is their legal requirement to do so or they could have their entire datacenters taken down.
Seriously, Wizard, I think you’re an idiot - everything is totally a written work.
It's not. Cybering, sexting and the sort is not a published book, and while it is legal for books of such natures to be written/published involving fictional minors (and even topics of rape and other stuff), you are not going to get those protections.
Does any way exist to avoid all these issues and allow erotic content?
Sure, we just need a way to be able to accurately verify ages online - then we could consider it. Read more about how nigh impossible it is here:
Verifying Ages Online Is Daunting Task, Even for Experts
Where are you getting this information from?
Our years of interacting with lawyers to see what we can and cannot do and other fun stuff we are preparing for (totally not confirming RpN Con hue) and interacting with law enforcement in regards to parents who have contacted as and the authorities in regards to sons/daughters erotic RPing inside PMs or on the site itself, one extreme case of stalking (where an older member socially engineered a female member’s address after months of slowly talking her on RpN/Facebook and her friends/family and pretending to be various people to slowly learn about her).
But again we aren’t lawyers, all of our information is based on stuff in the recent past and laws can change practically over night, if you are ever in doubt about something online please consult a lawyer who specializes in the relevant field of law.[
Closing Remarks
Ultimately, sure, the jail scenario is the ultimate doomsday scenario unlikely to happen, the site would be shut down before that because anyone smart/malicious to submit false claims (or heaven forbid, a real one), the damage that it would cause the site to be offline for so many weeks would be irreparable for our community, after all we roleplayers are fickle creatures
!
So yes, while we or any community that allows erotic writing or content is most likely not going to jail, it does build the community like a house of cards, easily able to be crumbled/knocked over by a concerned parent/disgruntled user/asshole.
o me that is no way to build a community and thus as has been the decree since day one, erotic content is and shall always be unacceptable here on RpNation.com. If that is what you are looking for please join another community for those kinds of needs.
So again is it illegal?
Yes and No, it is extremely gray waters leaning towards the dark side. It truly depends on how vicious the law is that day.
If you have any questions/feedback/concerns please post below.
Today I wish to address in more detail the (in)famous no erotic content policy which has earned us both admiration and hate since the site’s creation. We aren’t here to drag your libido behind a dark alley and murder it, we are doing what is best for the community.
Let's get down to it, shall we?
Is writing erotic content Illegal?
Yes and no. The rest of this article should hopefully explain why this is the case.
Is erotic writing protected as a written work or piece of literature?
In the United States and other countries it is actually legal for authors to write erotic content that describes sexual activities, usually with no limit, that can include fictional minors. We call this smut - smut is legal.
However, communications on RpNation, social media sites and any other form of online communications (chat rooms, etc) are not protected under this law. No good judge or jury will give you that consideration. Online communications are not published written works. If that argument was valid then no one would end up on the sex offender’s registry for sexting (which happens, even without pictures).
What if I claim I don’t know their age?
Lack of knowledge is not a valid defense in most states in USA and under a certain age, it automatically gets invalidated even if it is legal in that specific part. (Looking at you, 12-13 year old children pretending to be older).
Romeo and Juliet Law:
The Romeo and Juliet law is a simple one, it is meant to allow teens to be teens and not to be punished. It works as follows.
What the law considers the “victim” has to be at least 14 years of age and the “suspect” is within 4 years of age. Less than 5 American states have this in effect to its fullest, most states have watered down litigation and laws with no real certainty. Most states include in this weaker Romeo and Juliet versions that they do not consider lack of knowledge a valid defence. In some states, the Romeo and Juliet law only applies to physical contact - it may not apply to written content.
The law is used arbitrarily, meaning that its protection can be dismissed by the court at any point in time, but that’s not the worst part. For it even to apply, both parties have to agree that it was consensual to begin with.
What if I am a minor and want to have fun with another minor?
It really depends on the location, but to this day, teens who have sex with other teens are getting sent to trial and convicted. Some states allow children of 16 to have sex with those under 18 (16 and 17 basically) but that shouldn’t be used as a defense to allow erotic content due to the fact that it is not 100 percent protective.
Well, I don’t live in the US, so I don’t have to follow these rules - right?
The site is hosted in America, and our site owner lives there, so yes - yes you do. Even if your country does not have child protection laws (most do, and some of them are much stricter than those in the US), we could still get in trouble for having your content on our site.
You may be tried by these laws if the minor you roleplay with is American.
Wizard, does this really matter?
In our modern and more liberal society, teens and such are having romantic relationships more than ever, things like this are not often reported - so they’re not often issues. Maybe the law will be updated one day to reflect the fact that teenagers are more educated and active then ever. Old laws are still laws, and as they are now, we could still get in trouble as a result of a phone call or email to the authorities.
Heck, even if going to jail is the worst apocalyptic scenario, the thing that can happen easiest is fake claims to our hosts. We’d be taken down for weeks for investigation. Hosts do this all the time even for fake DMCA requests, child endangerment, and other stuff. It is their legal requirement to do so or they could have their entire datacenters taken down.
Seriously, Wizard, I think you’re an idiot - everything is totally a written work.
It's not. Cybering, sexting and the sort is not a published book, and while it is legal for books of such natures to be written/published involving fictional minors (and even topics of rape and other stuff), you are not going to get those protections.
Does any way exist to avoid all these issues and allow erotic content?
Sure, we just need a way to be able to accurately verify ages online - then we could consider it. Read more about how nigh impossible it is here:
Verifying Ages Online Is Daunting Task, Even for Experts
Where are you getting this information from?
Our years of interacting with lawyers to see what we can and cannot do and other fun stuff we are preparing for (totally not confirming RpN Con hue) and interacting with law enforcement in regards to parents who have contacted as and the authorities in regards to sons/daughters erotic RPing inside PMs or on the site itself, one extreme case of stalking (where an older member socially engineered a female member’s address after months of slowly talking her on RpN/Facebook and her friends/family and pretending to be various people to slowly learn about her).
But again we aren’t lawyers, all of our information is based on stuff in the recent past and laws can change practically over night, if you are ever in doubt about something online please consult a lawyer who specializes in the relevant field of law.[
Closing Remarks
Ultimately, sure, the jail scenario is the ultimate doomsday scenario unlikely to happen, the site would be shut down before that because anyone smart/malicious to submit false claims (or heaven forbid, a real one), the damage that it would cause the site to be offline for so many weeks would be irreparable for our community, after all we roleplayers are fickle creatures
!So yes, while we or any community that allows erotic writing or content is most likely not going to jail, it does build the community like a house of cards, easily able to be crumbled/knocked over by a concerned parent/disgruntled user/asshole.
o me that is no way to build a community and thus as has been the decree since day one, erotic content is and shall always be unacceptable here on RpNation.com. If that is what you are looking for please join another community for those kinds of needs.
So again is it illegal?
Yes and No, it is extremely gray waters leaning towards the dark side. It truly depends on how vicious the law is that day.
If you have any questions/feedback/concerns please post below.
Last edited by a moderator:
!?
