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All right, I'll just say it
13 years ago
Am I the only person who ever considers how easy it would be for a child predator to stalk victims on FA? Forget for a moment that you and me and just about everybody else got our accounts when we were 16 or 17- It's not so uncommon to find profiles proudly professing that they're still too young to drive. Users as young as 13 can get a profile on the site, and it's practically an honor system that keeps them from accessing adult art. The same honor system seems to be in place for preventing anybody from preying on the site's underage population.
The more I've come to use FA the more I've come to realize that the site is not only lacking in services for writers, but that the whole concept is, in a term, dangerous. I've always liked social networking sites, and especially liked FurAffinity for the positive and active social climate it engenders. I don't think there's anything wrong with an adult community online that exists to share pornographic material. However, I think it is absurd for this site to try to cultivate, along with its population of porn-seeking adults, minors who are advised to make their personal details and sexual tastes public. FA was created when Facebook and MySpace were only just carving out the identity of what "social networking" would come to be on the internet, but by now it's role is pretty well understood: The majority of internet users use the internet for social networking, and FurAffinity is just one of innumerable specialty sites dedicated to a particular social group. FA is popular not just because it's a gallery like VCL always was- but because it's a place to really meet and get to know the people behind the fur. While that is great for like-minded adults trying to find company, it provides an opportunity for people with nefarious intentions.
Like it or not, sexual predators use online networking sites to find their victims. It'd be silly to assume FurAffinity would be spared of this. I think it would be possible to operate a furry website with strict age controls that sought to prevent vulnerable teens from being contacted by predators. But given the history of the administration of this website, would you give them the benefit of the doubt of taking the issue seriously, and providing a quick, adequate solution for it?
I don't. And so, I've come to use FA less and less. It's not that I feel any less furry, or appreciate my furry friends any less. It's a more existential crisis relating to every time I come to this site and find a new watch in my gallery from somebody who clearly isn't allowed to view porn. These moments serve as reminders that I'm not just another person on this site: My stories in my gallery are meant to draw people, to attract them to use the site, to sign up and be social. But the desire to use FA decreases dramatically the more I feel I'm contributing little more than bait in a trap.
I'm willing to bet I'm the only person thinking about this, but I felt I had to get it off my chest either way.
The more I've come to use FA the more I've come to realize that the site is not only lacking in services for writers, but that the whole concept is, in a term, dangerous. I've always liked social networking sites, and especially liked FurAffinity for the positive and active social climate it engenders. I don't think there's anything wrong with an adult community online that exists to share pornographic material. However, I think it is absurd for this site to try to cultivate, along with its population of porn-seeking adults, minors who are advised to make their personal details and sexual tastes public. FA was created when Facebook and MySpace were only just carving out the identity of what "social networking" would come to be on the internet, but by now it's role is pretty well understood: The majority of internet users use the internet for social networking, and FurAffinity is just one of innumerable specialty sites dedicated to a particular social group. FA is popular not just because it's a gallery like VCL always was- but because it's a place to really meet and get to know the people behind the fur. While that is great for like-minded adults trying to find company, it provides an opportunity for people with nefarious intentions.
Like it or not, sexual predators use online networking sites to find their victims. It'd be silly to assume FurAffinity would be spared of this. I think it would be possible to operate a furry website with strict age controls that sought to prevent vulnerable teens from being contacted by predators. But given the history of the administration of this website, would you give them the benefit of the doubt of taking the issue seriously, and providing a quick, adequate solution for it?
I don't. And so, I've come to use FA less and less. It's not that I feel any less furry, or appreciate my furry friends any less. It's a more existential crisis relating to every time I come to this site and find a new watch in my gallery from somebody who clearly isn't allowed to view porn. These moments serve as reminders that I'm not just another person on this site: My stories in my gallery are meant to draw people, to attract them to use the site, to sign up and be social. But the desire to use FA decreases dramatically the more I feel I'm contributing little more than bait in a trap.
I'm willing to bet I'm the only person thinking about this, but I felt I had to get it off my chest either way.
Another thing that I have noticed that was somewhat unexpected is that a "public" social network such as FA can also function to deter pedophiles and protect minors. While a lot of the predatory behavior can still go on in private channels, there is usually some type of public footprint. If the more observant among us are willing to police ourselves and pay attention, it's not that hard to spot inappropriate behavior and call out the parties involved or report it.
Not to mention the number of times they have changed their TOS lately to deter submissions that could be considered underage (such as removing RL kink pics or sexual fursuit pics because the person in them "could" be underage).
For what it's worth, I don't think it's terrible for underage users to see adult stuff. That's a minor concern, and the truth is you won't prevent teens from getting porn. But the site has done NOTHING to deter younger users of the site from contacting or being contacted by the older users. It's not about the site's content, it's about its structure and userbase- That it encourages people to share information that could be used in a predatory fashion.
And if it's tolerated or even tacitly encouraged on FA, then it's being shouted from the streets on Inkbunny.
I for one, am not looking forward to the day when pictures like this provoke horror rather than sentimentality.
I feel the same way. Furries are just becoming popular, but that doesn't mean we have to be liked. It would be incredibly easy for furries to earn a reputation for targeting children- All it would take is a handful of bad examples and the popular knowledge that anthro characters attract children. Everybody knows why Joe Camel had to be put out to pasture. Everybody except furries, I think.
I think there's an obsession with "cute" anthro characters (as many of them are drawn in "cute" or chibi style) that can easily cross the line into sexualizing a child-like subject. And no, the argument that "it's just fantasy" doesn't hold any water with me at all. I suppose given only the two options, better to have pedos wanking to the stuff in basements than actively looking for real life children to prey on, but the ideal situation would be to cure the condition (and it is, very much so, a condition). Trouble is it's pretty much impossible to "cure" a paraphilia and many child molesters don't want to be cured, as sexual predation and psychopathy, as in no remorse or empathy for the victims, are strongly linked.
And hey, don't imply Joe Camel was a pedo. He was cool enough to get me to start smoking. 8)
I don't know the SoFurry policy off hand, but that site started as one unashamedly for writing of a sexual nature. Do they say anyone under eighteen cannot join?
I think short of banning Internet communication, you can't ever entirely prevent predators from being predators, and I'm certainly not trivializing the severity of it, but as far as I knew when they are aware they very quickly ban users that are underage that view/post adult rated work.
Of course some countries don't even have age restrictions like that for pornography, or have it at a younger age such as sixteen. FA is a USA based site though, so the rules are the rules regardless, so that's fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. I do remember a certain person that had many commissions of their character turned out to have seduced a minor as their "pet" or something ridiculous, when that person wrote a journal later saying how much they felt they were exploited when they were younger, and of course they (the predator) got banned when the word got out. I don't know if their victim chose to press charges or not, but what's to stop someone from lying about their age? If they do lie about their age, how is it that the site's fault?
One thing I do notice is blatant sexual chatter on general submissions, which is creepy to me. For example I recently saw a rather well drawn picture of a Disney character, and the comments were all about what kind of rule 34 people wanted to see, with the artist chiming right in about it and saying they were doing porn next in the description.
I don't understand what FA does worse on this front than other sites that feature both general and adult content, is what I'm wondering in far fewer words. I certainly won't argue about the story submission thing, since I posted a small handful of stuff on an alternate account and saw how clunky that is, in many cases using wording implying the submission is an image, and then failing to properly display some of the characters in the story so I had to re-upload after doing edits so FA wouldn't choke on it.
Never mind the influx of underaged people joining said websites.
Either way, you're definitely not the only person who has these concerns, and even if you were before, anyone who reads this journal should have it in mind from here on out.
I think it's best to go grass roots on this one, and just get a large group of vocal people talking about the issue, and hopefully the admins will hear it at some point and take some steps to address the issue.
That's how it would play out in ideal circumstances, but we're all cynical enough to know that the administration doesn't adhere to the ideal.
Still, I don't know what other options there are.
id almost say there should be a law against anyone under the age of eiteen being allowed onto the internet, period, hencing making certain online spying bills very pointless. but just the same, there is rights and freedoms to consider as well. x.x