#this is illegal btw and i'm fully aware of it but like. whatever!

[binch-i-might-be]

dude my fucking landlord texted me yesterday evening like "I'm coming by the house tomorrow to talk about the new internet connection" so I was like "cool", fully expecting not to do that in my flat, and now, one (1) hour before he's supposed to get here, he texts "btw there will be some guy from the bank to take pictures of your flat to evaluate safety or whatever. cool? <3"

girl my flat is a mess. I'm going to kill you

[the-final-sif]

Honestly, rules about what I can interact with as a minor are kind of strange to me. I've been allowed to have sex for years (and not from Romeo and Juliet laws) but I can't read a fanfiction where two consenting adults do it??? This isn't about specific authors being uncomfortable with it btw, moreso the culture and rules about it.

I mean, so reading fanfiction is whatever as far as I'm concerned. Go nuts, read the tags, you're gonna make your own choices about it. Law is gonna say one thing but that's largely a matter of old people clutching pearls over kids seeing boobs or whatever.

The difference for me on a cultural level and what I will push back on is interaction. When it comes to stuff like 18+ spaces, nsfw commissions, sexual roleplays, and commenting on 18+ fic, it's about the consent of the other person involved. And I do think maintaining rules/general culture of those spaces being 18+ is important.

Like, you can go have sex in real life, sure, but that real life person is going to visually see you and have a sense of your age. You might be able to lie to them about it, but it's gonna be a lot harder. Ideally, any partner you have would be fully aware of your age and both of you would be comfortable with your age and their age.

Online, that becomes much harder. People are putting out content and sometimes interacting with strangers. The general assumption adults are making is that in an 18+ space, they are only interacting with other adults. Everyone has passed a baseline threshold. When they find out someone is 16 or 13 or a 12 year old in an 18+ space, that feels super creepy, gross, violating and can stick with a person for life. They didn't consent to that interaction, they didn't want it, they didn't have any say in it. They never wanted to be interacting with someone at that age in that way.

The difference is in knowledge and consent. In real life, you going and fucking an 18 year old when you're 16 is between the two of you and as long as both of you know what's up, have fun and remember safe sex practices.

On the internet, if you at 16 and and 18 year old want to sext (but seriously do not send photos if you're underage, it's still very illegal even if that seems dumb), maybe doing a nsfw roleplay or whatever, cool. Again, remember safe sex practices and have fun. Not my business.

But going into an 18+ space which is clearly marked 18+ where everyone there is under the assumption that they are interacting with other adults isn't cool. They didn't consent to that, they aren't aware you're 16, and you have no idea how old they are or if they're cool with interacting with a 16 year old in that manner. It's a violation of consent, and that isn't okay.