#i was EXTREMELY fortunate that the majority of my friends weren't actual creeps and respected my OOC boundaries

[shrimpmandan]

Echoing prev tags about a lot of RP spaces being super uptight, restrictive, puritanical, et cetera, but I also wanna draw attention to the opposite.

Online RP is like... potential groomer PLAYGROUND. My first experiences with RP included doing 'Animal Jam mating'. I moved to Pokemon Showdown after that and was introduced to 'proper' ERP by a 20-something year old man. I LIKE doing ERP, and I liked doing it with my friends who I actually trusted, but should I have been introduced to it by some random dude who was always a little bit of a creep? No. No I should not have been.

And of course, the common problems with RP spaces still persist. Elitism, literacy if that matters to you, people actually being respectful of your character and boundaries. I get WHY people gravitate towards AI bots. Though they're harder to communicate with and don't always give good results, they don't say no. They don't yell at you for making a mistake. They don't berate you. The RP space I was in was EXTREMELY toxic and not healthy for me to be in as a 13 year old, even though it was a 13+ space. Multiple mods were outed as groomers, some of my friends and I were viciously harassed by people much older than us, activity dropped hard after the move from Pokemon Showdown to Discord.

At the same time, I DID meet most of my closest friends through RP. RP is one of my favorite hobbies and something I don't think I'll ever be able to fully let go. It helped me process a lot of trauma, explore my sexuality in a (mostly) safe environment, and become better as a writer. On top of that, giving me some very close connections. I don't regret my time in RP spaces. At the same time, I don't blame people for not wanting to be involved in them, whether as kids or adults. Seriously the only good, relatively popular adult RP site that I can name off the top of my head is F-List, and even THAT site has a whole host of moderation and community issues. I used to be one of many kids who would sneak onto F-List because it was one of the only good, active sites with an anti-censorship policy, and... do not do that. Don't emulate me. It's not worth the risk to yourself or others.

I think AI fucking sucks and prefer playing with an actual person, but in terms of like... safety? Online RP spaces are not safe for minors and never were. I would genuinely rather teens be frisky with AI bots as opposed to either A) getting involved in adult spaces because they can't express anywhere else, or B) situating into 'kid/teen friendly' servers that are rife with grooming where the topic of ERP is an open secret more than anything else. And even if they're NOT in a predator-ridden space... the aforementioned issues of creative repression, elitism, and struggling to find partners you jive with persists. Shit sucks.

i dont like the idea that kids these days are doing their fandom rps with ai chatbots. that's how you're supposed to make lifelong friends as a weird really online teen.