Age-rating instead of adult/mature/smut/r18 tags

[minacia]

Many fiction sites that I know have a required section that force authors to rate their story for a certain audience (i.e. PG, PG-13, etc).

For instance, take fictionpress:

^ The rating of the story is clearly displayed while browsing. It's extremely transparent to readers exactly what they're getting into, and it's extremely easy to filter/search for.

Fictionpress uses:

• K: Kids
• K+: Kids plus
• T: Teenagers
• M: Adults

Archive of Our Own uses:

• Not rated: For people who didn't rate their story
• General Audiences: Suitable for all ages
• Teens and Up: Teenagers
• Mature: Contains adult themes
• Explicit: Basically porn

Let's copy an excerpt from AO3's official tutorial, because I think it lays out a lot of dramatic topics that the SH community is currently dealing with and resolves it extremely smoothly:

Rating (required)​

Select the rating which you believe best applies to your work (or select "Not Rated").

Ratings measure the intensity of a work's content and give users an idea of the suitability of the work for them. Ratings and warnings can attract users who are seeking specific content, and they can also warn off users who are trying to avoid that content. Because fanworks may deal with controversial and painful issues, we encourage creators to choose ratings and warnings that help users make decisions about the works they access.

The ratings and their definitions are as follows:

Not Rated This is the default option. For searching, screening, and other Archive functions, this may get treated the same way as mature and explicit-rated content. Choose this rating if you prefer not to rate your content.

General Audiences The content is unlikely to be disturbing to anyone, and is suitable for all ages.

Teen And Up Audiences The content may be inappropriate for audiences under 13.

Mature The content contains adult themes (sex, violence, etc) that aren't as graphic as explicit-rated content.

Explicit The content contains explicit adult themes, such as porn, graphic violence, etc.

A user accessing a "Not Rated", "Mature" or "Explicit" rated work will receive a warning (unless they have disabled it in their preferences) to advise them that the work may contain adult content. You can refer to How can I turn off the confirmation to access adult content? regarding this option.

For more information about ratings on AO3, visit the Terms of Service FAQ - Ratings and Warnings.

Archive Warnings (required)​

Select any warning(s) which you believe apply to your work, or "No Archive Warnings Apply", or "Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings". You can make multiple selections. Fanworks may deal with controversial and painful issues; therefore, we encourage creators to choose ratings and warnings that help users make decisions about the works they access.

AO3 requires that creators either warn for—or explicitly choose not to warn for—a short list of common warnings: Major Character Death, Underage, Rape/Non-Con, and Graphic Depictions of Violence. We've also provided options to warn for additional content or to not warn for content at all.

The warnings and their definitions are as follows:

Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings Use this if warnings may apply but you don't want to use them.

No Archive Warnings Apply Use this if AO3 warnings don't apply to your content (in other words, if it contains no graphic depictions of violence, major character death, rape/non-con, or underage sexual activity).

Graphic Depictions Of Violence This is for gory, graphic, explicitly described violence. Exactly where to draw the line is your call.

Major Character Death Please use your best judgment about who counts as a major character.

Rape/Non-Con Again, this is your call. If you think your content is borderline non-consensual, but you don't feel like using this warning (or you're not sure if you should), you always have the option of using "Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings" instead.

Underage This is for descriptions or depictions of sexual activity by characters under the age of eighteen (this doesn't include dating activity like kissing or vague references with no actual description/depiction). This generally applies to humans; if you are writing porn about space aliens who only live for a month or thousand year-old vampires with sixteen year-old bodies, please just use your best judgment. You are always free to specify characters' ages or to use "Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings".

You can use the Additional Tags field to give other or more detailed warnings (this will be covered in more detail further on in the tutorial).

Our policies regarding warnings can be found in the Terms of Service and Terms of Service FAQ.

There are several major advantages to using required age ratings:

1. ScribbleHub makes it complicated for everyone. The definitions of various genres aren't clear to many people (i.e. smut vs adult?), which makes filtering more laborious for anyone who wants to do it, and harder to spot at first glance. Additionally ScribbleHub has R-18 and R-15 tags which are used very erratically and not possible to filter (the "R-18" here is synonymous with porn, at least in my experience). Furthermore, genres like josei or seinen don't necessarily have "adult" content.

2. ScribbleHub's content warnings are too vague to be useful to anyone. Almost everyone's novels that I see have some form of "content warning" checked off.

3. Regardless if you like/hate R18 stuff, very graphic smut (or near-smut) is an established fixture of SH. There are so many novels that fit this category that it's practically impossible to ban them all without creating an enormous amount of drama in the community which would be extremely destructive/toxic. Consequently, an "Explicit" tag is probably warranted on SH that distinguishes it from ordinary 18+ content.

4. Adult/Mature aren't genres. They're content ratings.

5. Simplifying the rating to just one overarching age system makes it possible to programmatically force readers to click through an automated warning page. For example, AO3 forces readers to click through a "This work could have adult content. If you proceed you have agreed that you are willing to see such content" warning before allowing the reader to see a novel.

 

[TheTrinary]

I see myself!

But more on topic I actually agree.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Who would've thought the solution to our problems is one fucken tag to the side that says 18+

Actually wouldn't that be worse? We're actively advertising to children that HEY, WE HAVE THE NO-NO PICS RIGHT HERE IF YOU LIKE EM'. It'll serve great as a warning but when was the last time you've seen a "Click if you're 18+" disclaimer working.

At least if we get sued we'd have a defense on our side.

 

[minacia]

Who would've thought the solution to our problems is one fucken tag to the side that says 18+

Actually wouldn't that be worse? We're actively advertising to children that HEY, WE HAVE THE NO-NO PICS RIGHT HERE IF YOU LIKE EM'. It'll serve great as a warning but when was the last time you've seen a "Click if you're 18+" disclaimer working.

At least if we get sued we'd have a defense on our side.

Well... I wouldn't really argue that it exists to "protect children", but moreso to better give readers exactly what they want.

 

[NotYourTypicalMan]

I am a simple man and I don't like complicated things. A Smut Genre and an 18+ warning is already enough.

 

[Deleted member 266]

I largely agree with not rated as the highest rating...

 

[CautiousTitan]

Many fiction sites that I know have a required section that force authors to rate their story for a certain audience (i.e. PG, PG-13, etc).

For instance, take fictionpress:

View attachment 5392

^ The rating of the story is clearly displayed while browsing. It's extremely transparent to readers exactly what they're getting into, and it's extremely easy to filter/search for.

Fictionpress uses:

• K: Kids
• K+: Kids plus
• T: Teenagers
• M: Adults

Archive of Our Own uses:

• Not rated: For people who didn't rate their story
• General Audiences: Suitable for all ages
• Teens and Up: Teenagers
• Mature: Contains adult themes
• Explicit: Basically porn

Let's copy an excerpt from AO3's official tutorial, because I think it lays out a lot of dramatic topics that the SH community is currently dealing with and resolves it extremely smoothly:



There are several major advantages to using required age ratings:

1. ScribbleHub makes it complicated for everyone. The definitions of various genres aren't clear to many people (i.e. smut vs adult?), which makes filtering more laborious for anyone who wants to do it, and harder to spot at first glance. Additionally ScribbleHub has R-18 and R-15 tags which are used very erratically and not possible to filter (the "R-18" here is synonymous with porn, at least in my experience). Furthermore, genres like josei or seinen don't necessarily have "adult" content.

2. ScribbleHub's content warnings are too vague to be useful to anyone. Almost everyone's novels that I see have some form of "content warning" checked off.

3. Regardless if you like/hate R18 stuff, very graphic smut (or near-smut) is an established fixture of SH. There are so many novels that fit this category that it's practically impossible to ban them all without creating an enormous amount of drama in the community which would be extremely destructive/toxic. Consequently, an "Explicit" tag is probably warranted on SH that distinguishes it from ordinary 18+ content.

4. Adult/Mature aren't genres. They're content ratings.

5. Simplifying the rating to just one overarching age system makes it possible to programmatically force readers to click through an automated warning page. For example, AO3 forces readers to click through a "This work could have adult content. If you proceed you have agreed that you are willing to see such content" warning before allowing the reader to see a novel.

I absolutely love this idea! I hope it's implemented!

 

[AliceShiki]

This seems pretty sensible, I like it~

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Who would've thought the solution to our problems is one fucken tag to the side that says 18+

Actually wouldn't that be worse? We're actively advertising to children that HEY, WE HAVE THE NO-NO PICS RIGHT HERE IF YOU LIKE EM'. It'll serve great as a warning but when was the last time you've seen a "Click if you're 18+" disclaimer working.

At least if we get sued we'd have a defense on our side.

Not even a defence.

 

[Aaky]

The Smut tag and the content warning are already enough. Maybe there should be a way to tag a specific chapter for a graphical content warning.