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You know how fandom is absolutely plastered with warnings saying "don't read this if you're under the age of 18?" Turns out that in most cases, at least in the US, that's totally not illegal.
Tonight, in a fit of curiosity, I googled the Child Online Protection act. After hacking my way through a forest of legal language, I learned the following interesting facts:
The COPA defines "minor" as under the age of 17, not under the age of 18, as I had previously believed. (NC-17 movies, on the other hand, are illegal for kids under the age of 18. Which makes absolutely no sense.)
It also does not apply to non-commercial sites. COPA applies only to persons who seek to profit from placing harmful-to-minors material on the Web as a regular course of their business. Which means that explicit fanfic is not actually illegal for American minors to access.
And if you can argue that fanfiction has artistic or literary value, an argument which plenty of academics will in fact support, you're even better off. COPA is narrowly limited to material that is designed to appeal to the prurient interest of minors and that, "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."
Furthermore, it does not restrict parents from allowing their children to access explicit material. So if you're a minor living at home, and your parents are cool people, you're fine. My parents, for example, never restricted my access to such things, and it's not because they didn't know I was looking at them.
And, yeah, of course we still have to cover our asses in other countries, and all that. So it's not like I'm saying you should lose the warnings. But still.
Learn something new every day, huh?
Tonight, in a fit of curiosity, I googled the Child Online Protection act. After hacking my way through a forest of legal language, I learned the following interesting facts:
The COPA defines "minor" as under the age of 17, not under the age of 18, as I had previously believed. (NC-17 movies, on the other hand, are illegal for kids under the age of 18. Which makes absolutely no sense.)
It also does not apply to non-commercial sites. COPA applies only to persons who seek to profit from placing harmful-to-minors material on the Web as a regular course of their business. Which means that explicit fanfic is not actually illegal for American minors to access.
And if you can argue that fanfiction has artistic or literary value, an argument which plenty of academics will in fact support, you're even better off. COPA is narrowly limited to material that is designed to appeal to the prurient interest of minors and that, "taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."
Furthermore, it does not restrict parents from allowing their children to access explicit material. So if you're a minor living at home, and your parents are cool people, you're fine. My parents, for example, never restricted my access to such things, and it's not because they didn't know I was looking at them.
And, yeah, of course we still have to cover our asses in other countries, and all that. So it's not like I'm saying you should lose the warnings. But still.
Learn something new every day, huh?
contemplative
dude
also what the hell re:NC-17?
i thought it was...you could BE 17. or maybe im just dumb?
hmm.
love
grace
(no subject)
I always thought it was odd that everyone had such a thing about explicit stuff online. I mean, when's the last time anyone cracked a romance novel? Nobody puts any warning labels on those. And I say with the utmost sincerity, that's how I found out about sex. Way before we went through it school (although, really, 10th grade is a little late to be getting the sex talk, esp. considering how many people seem to rely on the schools doing it for them).
Back to the written word though, once you get past the rough Children/Young Adult segregation, there isn't really any way to tell how graphic the book is going to be. I mean, my parents were letting me read Dean Knootz when I was 12. (Dude, have you read Fever?) So why all the fuss with fanfiction? You put general warning on them, which is more then books do, and you let people be personally responsible. If somebody sees something they don't like, well, that's life. And if someone is honestly young enough to be psychologically harmed by it, then what are they doing online without supervision?
Is there something that regulates books? hmmm...*goes to look*
Ok, you totally hit a nerve with this, if you couldn't tell. I don't have children, and I don't really like children, but I think that they're a lot tougher and smarter then people give them credit for. I mean, we used to live in one room houses and have 10 kids. Yah know?
wow.
So maybe it just comes down to a general distrust of a lot of shit that goes down on the internet? Because that is the only reason I can come up with; because we haven't met face to face (even though we havent for most books in the libraries) we obviously are reading super-evil-laden-with-permanently-scarring badness. Seriously. Very hypocritical.
Grr.
Re: wow.
I guess you could argue for increased access or something for the net, but you can hide a book a hell of a lot better then a computer. And the last on-line stat I saw was 43% of the American (US) public. Public libraries and book stores are open to everyone.
And if you go to a large public library where they don't know you or your parents or something, it's just as easy to get. So, I'm not really sure why fanfiction would be worse or have to be regulated when books aren't.
Re: wow.
In fact, my parents didn't even care when I read books like Speak. They thought I was further educating myself in the ways of life. Or something. They were thinking noble thoughts, I just am having difficulty expressing them.
Also, I LOVE KALPURNA SO MUCH!!!!!
Re: wow.
*Tries to image being issue-less* See, I used to defend my not watching of the news with the whole blood pressure argument, but that didn't hold any water because I'm 22 so now I have a great many issues. And then I wandered into the non-fiction section of Borders because my crappy romance and fantasy needs were being met online for a lot less money...
Should I know who/what Kalpurna is?