Sex scenes in webcomics

candiedcotton 2022-09-19 16:46:23 UTC #1

Kind of a weird one for me but I'm a little confused on what is actually allowed. I'm finally getting to a point where there's a pretty intimate scene in a story I've been working on and while I haven't yet published that comic, I plan to soon. It will be a while yet for that scene of course, but I'm really lost on what -specifically- is allowed. From what I understand, you can't have 'explicit' sex scenes. But I have come across numerous canvas comics with some seriously graphic stuff and the only thing censored is lightsaber dicks and the like.

Can I get a solid breakdown of what is actually allowed?

BlairFujin 2022-09-19 17:52:11 UTC #2

lightsaber dicks or mosaics are alright on tapas - website and globalcomix

on tapas app, webtoon canvas, mangatoon and webcomicsapp you can barely show anything, either zoom in on the faces or put a black bar over part of the panel (Moonshine recently had a missing page, it's author felt that there was nothing there that wouldn't get him in trouble here), both nipples and genitals aren't allowed to exist

on comicfury, flowfo and epico you can show as much as you want

For comparison from my own work - the same page
on tapas app

tapas website

and on comicfury
bdsm-boys.the-comic.org/comics/235/ (had to remove the https part, to avoid preview)

naturally, nsfw content warning

candiedcotton 2022-09-19 17:57:27 UTC #3

Exactly the info I was looking for, thank you!

Man, I have dug all over trying to find this info and it's ridiculous how hard it is to get. The ToS is so ambiguous.

BlairFujin 2022-09-19 18:03:02 UTC #4

Yeah... it is...
Getting the app version up was a pain in the ass... At first I just posted the old webtoon version but that wasn't enough, got a single page with giant white boxes and "everything more like this" and had to go through whole series (around 170 pages at that time) looking for what could be too much for tapas and then wait a week for it to get approved and yeah, so far wierd zoom ins and slashing panels around nipples has been working so far...

candiedcotton 2022-09-19 18:14:13 UTC #5

I feel like Tapas just needs a rating category for 18+ content. I mean, sex happens, and the things that happen during sex can have a big impact on the story overall. It's just a bit frustrating, but it is what it is, I guess.

I've pretty much given up on having anything remotely adult on Webtoon, so Tapas is probably going to be my go-to for this comic.

BlairFujin 2022-09-19 18:16:54 UTC #6

sigh if only the mature section wasn't for premium (almost exclusively translated imported) content...

Iris-Grimoire 2022-09-19 20:09:03 UTC #7

It's not Tapas' problem, it's Apple. They literally cannot have an 18+ section anywhere on the app or the whole thing gets marked mature or even is at risk of being delisted since they're ultra puritan. Anything else they ban from now on (like say, deciding lgbt+ is auto mature content) Tapas still has to bend to, no matter how unreasonable and horrible, if they want a presence as an app.

BoomerZ 2022-09-19 20:38:51 UTC #8

If you want sex in your comic, Tapas is not your platform. Think of it as pg-13. But seriously, no story can't be told in a pg-13 framework. It's a matter of what you show and what you imply. Violence or even rape can be shown in a pg-13 style. And usually the less you show, the more the audience imagination will fill in the gabs and usually do a better job than you could.

BlairFujin 2022-09-19 20:39:26 UTC #9

Well, it's still tapas that decided to hide all the creators hurt by apple under the rug instead of, for example, giving them some dedicated space on the browser version (as a compromise for being excluded from the mobile app). They could also make the guidelines clearer, add some examples as to where the allowed boundaries actually are so that you don't have to find them by trial and error and doing a back and forth with staff, waiting for days for a response from them...

joannekwan 2022-09-19 20:44:10 UTC #10

They actually considered this--adding examples--but ultimately didn't go forward with the idea since the guidelines from apple change. For example, happy trails (hair leading down from the navel to the pubic area) used to be allowed, but then apple flipped that around and it's no longer appropriate.

Lady_T_Musings 2022-09-20 15:45:23 UTC #11

They took the Happy Trails!? LAWD I gotta shave some wizards DX.

NickRowler 2022-09-20 15:55:17 UTC #12

Why are happy trails inappropriate? Are male characters only allowed to be hairless?

candiedcotton 2022-09-20 15:56:21 UTC #13

I'm tempted to make a male side character in a scene who's shirtless and super hairy all over his torso, but has this weird bald reverse happy trail.

BoomerZ 2022-09-20 16:28:53 UTC #14

Just letting you know my male character in my story has had his shirt off or shown it ride up and he has a happy trail. Zero issues. It's what context you show it. In my case it is just shown as part of his body, not sexual in any way. I just think males should look like your average male (80%+ I would say don't shave.). I also have nude scenes, that you don't see anything and are not sexual. Once again zero problems from tapas. It literally is all about context. If you are trying to arouse through the art, they are going to come down on you. If it's just part of the story, the worst they will do is give a warning at the beginning of you comic for mature themes.

migxmeg 2022-09-20 16:38:28 UTC #15

@BoomerZ That may just mean that no one has reported you yet - lots of stuff that "crosses the line" can fly under the radar until someone reports it - doesn't necessarily mean you won't have an issue if it's brought to staff attention.

Lady_T_Musings 2022-09-20 16:38:44 UTC #16

PFTTT This got me good

Freemints30 2022-09-20 18:08:57 UTC #17

That mostly cus your comic is way under the radar. Like very few people have seen it

The happy trails ban was something honestly every body knew about a long while ago. It's stupid banned regardless of the context of the scene. I dont get why its banned other than my own assumption that I shall not say here cus it's more a theory

I've seen an explicit undergrad l father son incest book on tapas and wadnt reported until it got to like 100 subs. I'm not gonna go around saying that you can have that on the plateform cus it was not reported at the time

joannekwan 2022-09-20 19:10:27 UTC #18

Apparently Apple counts it as pubic hair.

ccmatta 2022-09-20 19:14:45 UTC #19

I have a question. So, nipples are a big no? And if I'm doing a beach scene, I have to censor my boys' nipples? xD

I have shown nipples before, no problem until now, I havily censor sexy scenes though. I don't know how far I can go with them, I always draw something big in front of them in the most obnoxious way of censoring. But I have some proper sex scenes in the script for the future and I'm scared of how I'm going to show them for the app, cuz maybe it'll be all panels just censored xD I don't know how to go about that, how far can we go even with censoring?

joannekwan 2022-09-20 19:33:23 UTC #20

There's the double-standard. Female nipples count as nudity and need to be behind a mature tag, but you don't need to censor them. Or you could censor them and not have the mature tag.
Male nipples don't need to be tagged or censored.