Even if there is an age verification filter, kids know how to lie, and just put in a DOB that's over 18.

So sometimes those that make NSFW art need to really lay down the line. Their posts aren't their first, normally it's come down to the final straw after many times of repeating themselves

Most minors today are lying, deceitful, little pieces of shit. Unfortunately these things must be said in the way they are to hopefully get the point through their thick skulls

This is exactly the mentality that I see everywhere, and it's honestly sad. There are some, maybe, that lie. But that doesn't mean they all do. In fact, a vast majority of them lie about their age out of curiosity. And if they do lie about their age, that's on them, not you. Do not attack an entire age group just because some of them do that.

You were a minor once yourself. Remember that, and remember they are human and should be treated as humans.

I see where you are coming from but the problem is if a minor receives NSFW work, the artist CAN be brought up on charges. That's why there is such harshness against minors. There is a reason you must be over 18 to get into adult stores and buy porn

Fortunately, you actually can't get into legal trouble if you don't know at the time. If they lie to you, and you do not know, you can not get into legal trouble as long as you can prove you confirmed their age first. This is actually why things like PornHub and other sites that allow NSFW are still around, as they have to confirm their age. Once they confirm their age, the site (Or artist) is off the hook. I always make sure somebody is over 18 if they purchase anything NSFW from me, and as a safeguard against lies, it HAS to be their own Paypal unless it's a friend paying for them, and then I will have them send me an image of their ID with all identifying information blurred out just to be sure. If you take the proper steps, then it is perfectly possible to protect yourself and minors without being mean to them

The origin of this is simple and a bit hard to word properly. Interacting with minors nowadays when you're an adult or influencer is seen as grooming. Being friends with minors is seen as grooming. Earlier this year I had drama because when I was nineteen I was friends with fourteen and fifteen year olds and nowadays it's an instant stigma. Even if I was a taken nineteen year old, talking to minors back then has been dug up to death when it was just casual conversations.

So if that's the past.

Then the present is if you talk to minors and are an adult, you're instantly a groomer. Even if it's 100% clean memes and safe for work. With that impacting people, the need for DNIs and disclaimers is huge. Mine on my page is just because I don't want them seeing all the NSFW I do but I also don't know how to react if someone I am talking to or paying reveals they're seventeen. The amount of drama happening in this day and age just results in if they're underage and an adult talks to them, they're being groomed.

And I'm too busy trying to protect kids from getting hurt irl or helping neglected people through shit to come online to false accusatiins.

Sadly, the internet has alienated minors and now they are do no approach on most sites.

This may be true, but, this stigma isn't going to stop until people stand up and start treating people like humans. There is drama, yes.... But that doesn't mean any of it is right. It's wrong to let that cause you to treat minors like trash. It's acceptable if you don't want to interact. But there's nicer ways to go about it than alienating an entire age group.

Oh absolutely. The problem is that the society online now just makes interacting nicely with minors get you put under a magnifying glass.

This stuff bothers me a lot as well and I'd love it to end but I think it's just the beginning of people doing "no minors allowed" everywhere and bullying kids away from stuff.

It probably is. But I am not letting that turn me into an asshole who treats kids like crap. If somebody raises a stink about me interacting with minors, then I'm going to point blank tell them that they are human beings and I am treating them as such. Being a nice human being has nothing to do with grooming.

I was a minor once myself, and honestly? If I had to deal with the hostility a lot of minors nowadays do now ... I don't think I would be the artist I am now. This is doing real damage to real people during a time when they are just learning about the world. They are old enough to start going out there and finding themselves... and are met with nothing but cruelty and hostility, and that shit hurts. It would hurt me, and I am in my early 30's... much less a kid who is just starting to figure themselves out.

I own servers that have minors in them, and I treat them like human beings. I give them art tips and advice, make sure they report to me ANY suspect activity (And immediately ban anybody who tries to harm them), give them somebody to vent to when nobody else will listen... Do you know how many kids are not taken seriously at ALL, and treated like their problems don't matter at all and how much damage that can do? It can do a LOT of damage mentally. And I just really feel that kids do not deserve to be treated like that just because they are under 18.

This change starts with me, and others like me. We aren't going to change this terrible stigma that hurts so many innocent, vulnerable people if we keep bending over to a bunch of white knights with no lives on the internet who just want some brownie points from people who don't give a shit about them by creating outrage and drama where none should be.

I'm not going to bend over to this stigma. I am not going to treat human beings like trash just because the internet will try to create drama. I don't care. I am not in it for popularity. Cancel culture is a problem, but more people need to rise up and stand against it. If we just keep standing by letting people cancel us over every single little thing, then actual problems are going to keep being problems and it's never going to get better.

Oh I am very close to the same. I don't interact with them a lot but when I do, it's positive. Back when I was nineteen talking to other teenagers wasn't weird. It's only recently that talking to people with age gaps is weird.

Which makes no sense because just talking to them really should not be a big deal. I talked to, spoke with, and encouraged teenagers to have fun and do what made them happy, etc. I don't see any of it as malicious. There's obvious malicious stuff and then there's the other stuff like just chatting with them.

I've done the same, most of my friends are a good four to six years age gap(still adult), but I listen to minors and let them chat with me, but I don't do TMI or let them follow me on NSFW accounts. I even inform them of things like DA's new porn allowing rules/fetish content folders. I tell people what they're getting into most days. I don't see them as anything but younger people trying to find their way in life, and I often tell them not to go around known artists and such which are. . . unsavory or predatious.

If a minor wants to talk to me, they can, but if they're actively on my porn or fetish content I'm going to tell them to not talk to me on it. Like they can message me on DA or somewhere safer or talk on Discord. I'm really just more bothered by them on porn sites in general because the context under meeting is too squick for me.

I don't do it as often because I know people judge but I don't believe in bullying minors either. Maybe helping them be on a safer site or such? Like some minors on here get such creeps that I think it's just. . . not okay.

Yeah that's totally understandable! I do tend to interact only in safe places, and I have blocked those I knew were minors who were trying to engage with my NSFW content. And yeah, I go by a strict "Only treat actual malicious stuff as malicious" because when everything is seen as malicious, actual malicious actions get completely buried and forgotten and not taken seriously at all.

Honestly I am considering actually making a separate account on fA, and having one account as completely SFW only, and this one be the one that has my few NSFW things on it... though I don't do NSFW nearly often enough to have two accounts honestly xD

Yeah, maybe. I'm kind of interested in joining your server btw. Could you PM it to me?

Sure! One is for my closed species ARPG, the other is based around my Hollow Knight AU