Hot Takes, Unpopular Opinions, & Rants!

rpf is ass and so is AO3's terms of service :)!

(Copy n pasted from my priv twitter)
Btw I talk about sexual exploitation of children in fandom/media as well as other mature topics so if you're a kid or this topic is triggering for you please skip this chapter thank you!

Also rpf stands for real person Fic

This is relatively old drama but I'm so sick of people defending AO3's free-reign style of content to the very last breath

I understand it was made originally as an archive and I also understand that when it comes to censoring problematic fic there is very often a gray line or debatable definition on whether something is truly "problematic". and a lot of times carving out that line leads to mass banning porn in general (ffnet, tumblr) but there is a line. There needs to be a line. It's legit sad that I think it's unattainable for them to ban child porn of any sort but at the very least there needs to be restrictions on rpf.

The old "discourse" I'm talking ab (and idk if it got resolved) is that someone wrote an explicit non-con fic about a 16 y/o youtuber and when people requested AO3 take it down they refused by stating it was outside of their TOS (or something similar, I don't remember the exact message)

Either way, when your website allows actual written child pornography of a 16 year old boy to be shared publicly on your site there needs to be reevaluation. Someone needs to step back and think. For a fucking moment. About the consequences of such a hands-off website.

And I'm coming back to this now because I keep seeing posts vaguely referencing it. One in particular was talking about how the situations involved in these fics, even if they include real people, are "still fantasy". And that the "tagging system on AO3 prevents people who don't want to see these fics from seeing them" and therefore "there is no harm done."

Except yes, the fuck, there is harm done because this is a sexually exploitative piece of writing about a real 16 year old child, and no amount of "correct tagging" will protect the child in question from being publicly sexualized to a large audience. The situation is fantasy but the person is real. And it can still very much do harm.

I'm honestly so upset for child stars who have fandoms revolving around them because the sheer amount of sexual abuse these kids endure from fandom spaces is fucking sickening.

And. I'm going to be honest this situation shouldn't be viewed as "pro-ship vs anti" drama. Child porn of actual kids should never be written off as dumb fucking fandom drama and I hate that it is. If you've gotten to the point that you think no censorship of this at all is ok Then I don't know what to tell you other than you're sick in the head.

I do believe some of the ""pro-ship"" mentality has led many people to being more lenient to whatever AO3 does due to the writing being fiction. And the huge discourse and "us vs. them" this discussion has become leads people to be a lot more defensive over it than they really should be. (But. For reference, I hate pro shippers and I hate antis. Both sides suck ass)

Also I legit think rpf shouldn't exist. It's a stretch to ask AO3 to ban it when they have literal child porn but ffnet has the right idea. Rpf by nature is just fucking invasive and gross and unhealthy for everyone involved. It is an invasion of privacy for the person being written about and creates heavy parasocial relationships between writer and celebrity, especially when the writer is now treating them as a character. Not as a human being.