12 / 23
Sep 2023

Newsflash: The Boys are not a comic for kids.
Some things in this world, including some media are not meant for kids at all, they are not made for them, they aren't meant to be consumed by them. You don't buy a Playboy magazine and get shocked over how children can see that.

You do know that the word "degenerate" has a lot of nasty connotations and an even nastier history right? Also, these comics are intended for adults, not kids

Just because a child can theoretically find something, doesn’t mean it’s the creator’s responsibility to not write about anything even slightly adult. If you start saying “well, this is in a medium that was associated with kids for a while, clearly everything in it is for kids” you’re going to mess up some kids by giving them any comic you see before checking its, y’know, something you’re okay with showing a child; and you really don’t want to live in a world where writing about anything “perverted” is illegal, because that might start out “if you put actual sex in a comic book you go to jail” like you wanted but it definitely cause many more things to be banned alongside it. If you have a problem with kids reading about adult stuff, just make sure you’re not showing them adult stuff.

Superhero and any other genre could attract kids, the stuff is allowed in comics because those comics are meant for a specific audience, now, is not the author's responsability if the parents go around leaving stuff in their children's hands without checking the Rating or just leaving their children unsupervised.

I'll be honest to you pal, many kids go into adult spaces just because they are curious regardless if there are adults telling them no, and a warning a sign, or even paywalls do the contrary effect, kids are way more interested in breaking those rules and barriers just to get their hands into that stuff, because they want to.

And I speak as someone that knew what hentai was at age 12, got her hands in doujinshi, video-games, movies that weren't suitable for my age, why? Unsupervised and also I was stubborn enough to make fake accounts and fake my age.

Like, with any game, movie, tv series, book, etc. There is a warning or label for stuff.





Thus, you'll be able to see those labels in content, its up to you to do your own research before handing something to a kid, or leaving them unsupervised. The issue is not the content itself, but how much of an absent parent you could be while being under the same roof. Or well, there are parents that simply don't care. One thing is normal, its easier to blame a creator than to blame the person that is actually responsible and legally the guardian of said kid.

To put an example, Deadpool is classified as a PG-13 movie in Argentina, while in other places is for +15. And still I've seen kids under 6 going to see the movie accompanied by their parents.

You act as if comics are supposed to be made for and read for ONLY by kids; that is the biggest misconception ever. The only reason comics have thrived as long as they have and the market is as big as it is is because they are read by young and older adults...even comics back in the days tackled issues such as drug addiction, child runaways and how they were exploited, and domestic violence/abuse; should those creators have been jailed for tacking issues that were/are prevalent?

Like someone else explained and showed, comics of an adult nature have ratings and warnings on them; not so much in the case of Invincible, but there is a clear cut common sense narrative out there that there are certain types of comics that you DON'T let children read as an adult- Invincible is one of those.

If comics with such material or that covers such issues aren't your thing, then don't read them...but I think you're overstepping boundaries in saying that creators need to be jailed making it; you never know that this material might resonate with someone who has gone through an experience and help them to cope with their situation(I would recommend seeing a therapist or even talking with someone who can help, but being a realist not everyone has those resources available).

I guess art spiegelman should go to jail for making maus then, and 90 percent of anime is evil too. And most superhero comics because those are full of sex and violence. It’s often joked that in superhero comics, gravity defying boobs are the most common superpower. So I guess NO superhero comic is acceptable to create and stan lee and jack kirby should have been arrested. Especially for depicting hitler/the holocaust in their comic stories because once you draw a character on a piece of paper to tell their story suddenly they’re magically a kids show character.

Also do you even realize what platform you’re on? There’s literally a porn section on the home page for porn comics. This space is mostly comics, but was never ever designed to be kid friendly.

Degenerate actually comes from the latin degenerare, which means inferior to your ancestors. As in your genes have degenerated. It’s literally just fascism, full stop.

Not all books are for kids. Not all "kids" are 8 and under. Teenagers and older teens might not be as bothered by mature topics and can understand topics that a young child can not. I hate this idea that we have to censor comics, books, TV shows, movies, etc. so that they can be OK for a child. There can be stuff just for adults. There can be stuff that is 13+ or 15+. Not everything needs to be appropriate for a 7 year old. There are books and comics that are appropriate for young kids, let them read those instead.

I also think the internet has skewed people's brains, because the graphic novels I checked out from the library growing up would always have some mature aspect to them. I read Blankets and Watchmen when I was 15 and I don't think it had a negative effect on me.

Everyone's already made some great points; I just wanted to point out that trying to jail/punish people for writing/showing/OWNING certain kinds of content just because...

...is already a thing that happens; it's not a hypothetical situation. Book banning is getting popular again in the US right now because of thinking like this, applied to a highly subjective view of what's 'appropriate for kids'.

I'm generally not a fan of NSFW content either, but like, morally and realistically, censorship like this does not accomplish anything that content warnings + decent parenting couldn't also accomplish, and without destroying/devaluing the work of millions of artists while spurring media distributors to come up with ridiculously maladaptive polices (see: YouTube's 'For Kids' setting, which they can force on you if they choose) to try to protect themselves from liability. T_T

Taking disturbing/traumatizing media directly to children is one thing, but simply making it and having children view it without your input is quite another, and conflating the two ideas CAN and DOES just make more problems than it solves.

Bro have you seen The Boys? That's not a children's show or comic, they're both even rated for an adult audience. Not every comic has to be for kids, adults like them too, and we should be allowed to have content for our age group. It's the parent's responsibility to regulate what media their children consume, not artists and writers making stories, they should not be put in jail just because some kid's caregivers didn't do their jobs. By that logic I should go to jail for having nudity and implied SA in my comic because a kid may be exposed to it.

This is a troubling post. So much important context is missing from the post that from my perspective it almost seems a troll post, though I can see it coming from a different culture by someone with limited exposure to the broader world and perhaps a younger mind than mine.

Abandonment of the CCA code was a positive move forward for comics. A rating system and parental supervision are the appropriate way to deal with this. As for sexual assault issues, where I live, children start learning about such in an age-appropriate manner practically as soon as they start school for their own protection.

"the children! oh the children!"

I'm sorry, but don't pretend like you have some hypothetical childs well being in mind when you're the one who has a problem with it. You have such a problem with it you think artists should GO TO JAIL without knowing, or caring, about what it is they're trying to say.

Your take is disgusting. Go goose-step to your next book burning.

Honestly, I think it's a 50/50 deal. Publishers and artists need to make clear whether or not their work is appropriate for kids and make sure that it's relatively hard to access for kids the best they can, and then it's the parents'/guardians' job to make sure that it's right for their kids. Everyone is different and thus everyone has different tolerances and mindsets regarding this sort of thing, but the main thing is to take full individual responsibility for yourself, your kids, and your own work where possible given that at the end of the day: The only thing you really can control is what you do and say if that makes sense.

As someone who recently binge-watched the entire series of The Boys I find it laughable anyone could ever think it was intended for children.

Not only does the content itself make it explicit from minute one that this isn't for children, every single episode is plastered with "18+ contains graphic sexual content, sexual nudity, gore, violence" and is slightly modified with each episode to best describe the content. The comic will come with similar warnings.

Also unfortunately sexual assault and dark life events are things children can be confronted with from a young age so there is and should be children's media that talks about these subjects in an age appropriate way to give the kids' who did have to go through that the opportunity to find solace and healing through fiction like the rest of us who found fiction helpful with difficult times. These examples aren't for kids but there are examples of stories with these themes that are intended for kids and are treated with the care they require. Jacqueline Wilson's Dustbin Baby comes to mind.

It would be absolutely bang out of order to imply that either Jacqueline Wilson the children's author who writes about difficult themes for children, or the artists and writers of adult comics like The Boys, should go to jail because they made art that talks about dark themes. It would be extreme censorship and just in general would lead to more suffering in the world where people would be scared to write any dark themes for fear of going to jail, and survivors of these crimes would have one less place to find healing.

Yes! I hate it when people lump kids into one static group when they have varying maturity levels. Me and my older sister are 4 years apart. We both loved Sailor Moon. But I also liked Teletubbies and she didn't because I was 4 and she was 8. She also liked Yu-Gi-Oh which I thought was boring.

Mf never heard of the boys and suddenly started to think about children :sob::sob::sob: this is too funny

Somehow you missed the past 30 years of cape comics largely being made by middle aged men for the enjoyment of other middle aged men.