I don’t make sexually explicit art so it doesn’t bother me if minors are fans or want to interact with me. I just treat them with respect like any other person and expect them to do the same. If you want to build a following you need people of all ages. If you want your story to become popular getting it out to younger audiences is important because you may win a fan for life who will tell all their friends how awesome your work is. It’s not something I worry about too much because online anyone can claim to be any age. It’s not really something I can police.
I'll never get why they constantly post about getting angry teens are looking at their work when teens are dumb as bricks already and will be encouraged to interact if you tell them not to. You already have 18+ and mature content in your bio when it comes to mature content, there's not much you can do besides calling the kid's parent or blocking them and at that point it's beyond your control. I've been in highschool, EVERY kid brags they saw a boob on the internet. You have more luck finding sasquatch than stopping a teen looking at that content. And when its not mature content, it just comes off as petty and immature.
I think it is mostly adults who do not want to be accountable for being a poor influence on a teenager. And I think it is also setting up a boundary that some young teens may not really understand. An adult on the internet should not be befriending minors.
I personally do not have an issue with a teenager following me. However, I would be annoyed if a teenager was trying to send me DMs and hoping to be friends.
I don't have any issue with kids following me. I don't make nsfw content and I intentionally don't share or like nsfw art because I know that I will have younger followers based in the type of work I create.
However, I personally try not to mutual with minors that I do not know from elsewhere because they tend to think that means we are friends and I am a 30 year old man. I can be friendly, but I can't be your friend. If 30 somethings are befriending minors those people need to be scrutinized.
I have a lot of friends who don't want minors following them because their accounts arent just "i showed titty and said the f word" but like they draw hardcore stuff. They ask for no minors because children consuming their nsfw stuf makes them uncomfortable. Let me just say, being unknowingly sharing content to minors is a horrifying and sickening experience. If it was in any sort of personal context they could be charged if the parents decide to blame them.
I don't really like to do a DNI kinda policy myself. It seems cumbersome and offputting.
I don't see excluding minors as unreasonable, especially if they're very young tweens/children who shouldn't be on social media to begin with. I wouldn't tell them to go away, I've certainly come across under 17 children reading my comic in spite of the age rating, but it's understandable to not want them to view your work. Children are super ignorant to a lot of things, and no matter how mature they are their brains won't be able to comprehend certain things until that brain has fully developed. Although I do understand porn artists telling them to go since they can get in trouble if the parent sees what the kid is looking at, and decides to press charges... actually I don't really hold it against anyone if they did go out of their way to tell kids to not consume their content in general. Telling a child not to consume your work isn't the same thing as telling an immigrant or blonde person to not look at your content, sure, a child can be those things but people in those two categories can also be adults... who can comprehend shit better.
Although I admit to being bias since I have experienced a mass of younger children (12-15) consuming my content, and grossly misunderstanding it due to not having those critical thinking skilled fully developed yet.
Also for me child = teenager. Mentally you are a child until your brain fully develops around the age of 25, sure, you're more developed in your late teens but still not fully there yet.
I think being vocal about excluding minors just Streisand Effects it to where they will ignore you and follow you/consume the content you create regardless of what you wish. Regardless of if you make mature content or not, it's up to you to determine how YOU will interact with younger fans (and you should treat them with respect but also keep a distance), but they will interact with your content however they please. Aside from the necessary legal things if you make mature content, there is little you can do about it honestly.
Now if you're saying "go away, teens are annoying," that's just inviting trolling so I don't know why anyone would ever do this.
Not sure i understand this thread completely. Do you mean when people say "this content is not for minors?"
Sometimes is the fault of the platform that forces creators to include something like "content intended for adults", for example, Youtube has made a big thing of not making "content aimed at kids".
Same if you post NSFW content in patreon or other sites, by law in most countries, it can only be available to people of legal age.
Right now I'm making a mature comic that do have sexual or violence themes, so by the site laws, only people of legal age should watch it.
It's so you aren't legally culpable if they are seen with your content. I don't think those artists think at all think their art isn't being viewed by teens. But in several countries it is illegal to place porn in front of kids. Part of why we have so many online restrictions with the apple store. Honestly, if something did go down in your fandom involving minors that ended up getting you banned from whatever platform you're on, I don't think saying "Teenagers DNI" would bring your account back.
I mean this (key words are bolded):
"Announcing that you don't want minors to follow you on a social media platform not because you post mature content, but simply because you don't like minors on social media?
I mean, I don't mean to be a snip, but I thought I made it pretty clear what kind of situation I was talking about (in the first line of the OP...). Is this really confusing...?
Nonononono, it's not an "ughh, kids are annoying" thing. At least in my circles, people say 18+ to set a boundary as others have already said. While they may not post explicit content, they may not be comfortable tapping into certain subjects or acting a certain way if they know minors can see. I certainly feel awkward when I see teens in my followers list. I don't feel the need to softblock them or anything, but it really makes me rethink what I post.
It's difficult for people to maintain without locking their accounts entirely, sure, but I believe it stems from paranoia after finding themselves in frightening places/situations on the internet as kids. That's unfortunately an extremely common experience that I'm sure some of us share.
Yeah, I still stand by telling kids you don't want them to follow you if they're legit too young for the site. To expand on that social media isn't a good environment for children under 18 anyway, especially sites/apps like Instagram and Tiktok where the point is to take pictures and videos of yourself. I always see teens on sites like that, and Twitter, posting all their info, including their age. They're mingling with adults, exposing themselves to situations only adults would understand, drawing attention to themselves. These kids don't get how easy of targets they're making themselves to predators and scam artists.
To me they shouldn't be on sites catering to adults, and talking to adults, unless they've been well educated in internet safety... as boomer as that sounds. Which most children don't get, parents are too busy or don't know nor care about that stuff, and there's no mandatory formal class teaching them how to go about using the internet. At least as far as I know.
In short. No, I don't think teens should be on social media, not unless they're well educated about it. Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, whatever, are not good places for children.
I think its okay specially in small communities (but not in comics or such bc you cant control really who picks up or not).
I'm in a site that has a hard maturity block feature that's being used lately by both nsfw and even sfw accounts for mostly comfort reasons as people in that site have been proven to lie about their age to rp with adults or worse, get nsfw art (which is another thing people are uncomfy with as many rp romance and its kinda a squick nowadays for minors/adults to be involved in romance rps) and etc.
It's not really much on "Minors annoy me" but more of staying on the safe side since they don't want to be held responsible for something that's not good as it's the adults more often than not, that get criticize as they should know better in setting up boundaries for them and the minor
i mean it doesn't matter. if someone doesn't want you to follow them why would you want to? clearly they don't like you for whatever reason so you shouldn't even care to follow such a person. and in the end it's their social media and i dont think its anyone else's business unless they're posting harmful content
As we have often tried to point out here on Tapas when talking about an age rating: just because you're safe for work doesn't mean you're not talking about some heavy shit that minors aren't really equipped to handle.
Also, many of us as we get older, feel less and less comfortable with someone, a minor, literally half our age or more, interacting with us casually and hearing up talk about stuff. If you were with a group of friend all around 30 and a 16yo rocked up and started acting like you were their friend, often without any prior interaction, wouldn't you feel a bit weird? Not to mention the horror stories of older people striking up a friendship with a teenager in fandom only for the teenager to start a witch hunt because they were "groom" (not to take away from people who are groomed onto the internet but many of these fandom drama cases are just kids not taking a friendship break up well).
And kids push the limits, especially on the internet. All those complaints about that Uke and Seme Bl completion, that's kids on the internet, especially in fandom. We might not like it, but minors want to talk about their ship's dynamics and often sexually. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's good for kids to explore their budding sexuality safely and if it's through a fictional character, that's cool. But tha doesn't stop it being awkward when they're the one's being nsfw and approaching you as an adult in the same fandom with the same ship.
As someone who posts mature content, I do this for one reason. Liability.
I run a discord community, and to be able to be even considered for a community discord under their guidelines, you have to strictly adhere to their TOS, and they, along with most social media sites have pretty in-depth guidelines regarding minors.
So when I see anyone do this, I don't think of it as a personal thing, but a liability thing.
Now speaking personally, do I care if minors consume my content? Not really. It's graphic in nature but no more graphic than things they've already seen on the internet seeing as they're consuming online content regardless. In my opinion it is the parent's responsibility to restrict their kids from seeing sensitive content, but at the same time, adhering to a TOS or guidelines are also important to me. Therefor I prefer that minors do not consume my content or join my community, as I do not want there to be any legal repercussions on my end.
Another reason I could feel is like, some people just aren't comfortable being around teenagers and kids? I know some of my friends who do 18 only on their twitters because they generally just want to be in the company of adults. Personally I've debated just going 18+ for my socials, but a lot of my friend circles are minors because that's just who I happened to be friend with and introduced to through their friend groups. I haven't really had an adult only environment since I turned 18, and even in my early 20's the only adult space I have is my own comic server.
And I have to say, it is a very big difference socially. You handle yourself differently around minors versus adults. There are experiences minors haven't gone through just yet, and thus when trying to talk about and relate to others, it often times won't click because it's something they haven't personally gone through. That's not a knock on them, it's just different life experiences. There's also this feeling that because you're the adult in the group, there is going to be a slight difference in power dynamics depending on how much older you are than them.
I'm not saying this applies to every adult and minor, but this is what I see and have experienced in most cases. Minors aren't dumb kids and adults aren't all knowing beings, and both can make mistakes. Minors and adults can be friends, but there's a lot of facets to these things. Also, minors very much also have a stipulation to their accounts too. I've seen minors with "DNI if over 18" and I definitely respect that. There's nothing wrong with trying to find space in your own age range, especially if you haven't had the chance to have that.
Kids are going to do what they want.
Tell them NOT to do something, and they'll do it.
So...maybe seeing some graphic images will teach them a lesson.
Or they'll grow up to be Ted Bundys, whatever.
All kidding aside, the "M" tag is here for a reason. If younger people want to FOLLOW your account here, we don't see a problem with it. Those 16-17 year old kids eventually become 18 - and could become one of your best supporters for all you know. Don't look the Christmas gift horse in the mouth.
A subscriber is a subscriber no matter how small.
I would be just, kinda more friendly about it. like, "This blog may contain adult content. Please don't follow if you're below 18 years of age". or just the second sentence if you're uncomfortable with minors following you.
DNI statements kinda give people a bad reaction these days and are often memed on.
In the end tho, you can't really control who follows you or consumes your content and who doesn't.