Will I get in trouble for not using M-rating?

[Calculus_Homework]

EEEE
Okay, so. Most questions in the forums I've seen are about censoring nudity, sexy things, and gore...
But Tapas describes using the Mature Content warning for also language.

Right now, my story has some teenage F-bombs and casual cussing in it. I haven't put an M-rating on it at all, because the cussing is kind of integrated. Personally, I feel like it'd be a really strange block for JUST the language. But i really don't wanna cause any trouble on here.

Should I be putting the M-rating on whatever updates have a curse word in it?
Or just whenever they say the F-word (and C-word too)?

Side note: I also don't want to lead a 12 year old reader into a false sense of a "happy story" about "good-natured teens"--cause it's not, and it gets violent and upsetting later. Would rather have an audience of 14+... but the story starts out slow and calm. BUT ALAS. I can't stop anyone from reading on the internet tbh.

[Freemints30]

Here's the thing unless its sex(more what gets you in trouble untagged) or violence (mostly if theres blood drawn). You would be mostly fine not using m ratings. Like my characters cuss like sailors at times. And I never used the language tag. Since... the novel is already for mature audiences so i have other things more important things to tag about. The language tag is I belive more for a series that is normally pretty child friendly to begin with (thou cussing in that may be a bit jarring)

Normally a simple warning in the beginning of your series will be enough (this series contain stronger language).

As for audiences yeah it's just something you gotta deal with online. Really once again a simple warning in the beginning of your series is all you can do. What ever happens is up to the reader wheather they chose to disregard

[darthmongoose]

Well, the good news is that a 12 year old shouldn't even be on Tapas, because as per COPPA guidelines, you're meant to be over 13 to use the site.

I think you can roughly follow the guidelines of a PG-13 movie. ie. You can say "shit" a few times, and you can drop an uncensored F-bomb once in a movie, so let's say once per 2 hours of content, or once every 200 pages or so maybe? C-word is right out without a mature warning though.

[kaetana]

I think the general consensus when the topic of using the mature filter for language has come up in the past was that there's two main instances to use it. The first is for especially extreme language (think slurs and other particularly abusive uses of swearing), and the second is for swearing that is out of place with the tone of the rest of the work (so if everything has been extremely G-rated with not even a 'dang', you should probably use the filter if a character is gonna suddenly drop an F-bomb).

I'm pretty sure I recall a mod even saying when the mature filters were first added, that we didn't need to go back and filter casual swearing if we didn't want to. Like for me, I have a general content warning that my comic contains foul language, so readers can expect the tone of the work to include that. I also have a character who pretty regularly likes to say 'feck' lol. I have never used a mature filter for that and it hasn't been an issue. So if the swearing in your work is of a similar nature, I wouldn't worry too much.

[Calculus_Homework]

Ahh, okay! Thanks for the info. Yeah, with your comment, I think I understand when to use it a lot better now.

[Calculus_Homework]

Thank god they at least ask your age to use the site. lolol

Okay, yeah. I can def agree with that.
Do you know if putting "teen" as a tag or just using it in your comic description does anything?

[Calculus_Homework]

That's a good rule of thumb for language. :>
I feel a lot better asking in the forums. You guys respond so fast too.

[joannekwan]

Yeah general swearing doesn't require a Mature tag. It's only there as an option because some creators requested it ¯l_(ツ)_/¯
Tapas does not police language. It's only graphic and/or sexual imagery that they take a close look at as it can get them in trouble with the app stores.
So all the other Mature categories are mostly for the courtesy of your readers so they know what they're getting into.

My personal take is that I only use the M language tag if my episode contains a slur.

[smokesalty]

I've never really had issues with not tagging as mature when my characters cuss, so I don't think you really need to. I think it's mainly violence and nsfw that needs to be tagged

[TAMAnnoying]

I personally tagged the first few pages with swears as light warnings, after the first chapter I stopped doing it because I assume your in it for the long haul and you know that one or more of the characters is a potty mouth.

I've never been yelled at for it and honestly more people complain/are confused by the mature tag and there's no blood or butts hanging out XD

[system]

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