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Proposal: Sex and Intimacy

Is it possible to limit the viewers of this site to 18 only when it comes to public beta? Or should we limit it now? There are many topics there that is not suitable for minor users.

What do you think?

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4 Answers 4

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We thought about this the first time the topic came up (and went to private beta). This isn't the first time we've examined the idea of a site primarily focused on sex, intimacy and sexuality. While it is textual Q&A, pictures and stuff do make for easier explanation, so it was a concern that several raised, and that was raised internally, long ago.

If we do anything, it's very likely to be along the lines of making sure folks know that there might be something ahead that they don't wish to see, or read. This would apply to kids just as equally as it would someone that was made uncomfortable by the topic or easily offended. It would stop nagging you once you dismissed it. I don't know if we'd consider that again, I think we'd have to wait and see how the new community set itself up before considering what might be necessary.

Ultimately, it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what their children do on the Internet. Our main concern needs to be making sure that we (1) don't have a site that embarrasses us, beyond the subject turning some faces red and (2) that it's making the Internet better, not worse. That's a burden that falls flat on the shoulders of the initial core community, so I think we should just wait and see what they come up with, and what we might be able to do in order to help them make it easier.

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  • Yes, thank you for this answer. "Just wait and see". Oct 7, 2014 at 0:39
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    Maybe require users to post NSFW pictures in spoiler markdown? Oct 13, 2014 at 13:33
  • This is about as far as you can go; technically you can't limit it (too easy to circumvent)
    – Jan Doggen
    Dec 24, 2014 at 9:20
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Both answers so far tackle the practical matter of things, I'll give my two cents why it shouldn't be limited: Underage people do practice sex. Even if they don't, there's nothing wrong with learning how bodies work; I can hardly think of something that is inappropriate for a minor in that regard - we don't publish pornography.

I understand though that some kids are indeed too young to be exposed to certain material. I think if they're old enough to be curious and seek information on sex, they're old enough to learn about it. If some parents disagree it's up to them to raise a parental firewall - and if some people (adults) are offended, well, there's always the browser "Back" button.

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    Great point! A SE site on sex where many people who know what they are talking about is a much better Q&A site than the other that youth oftentimes use: their friends at school. Dec 14, 2014 at 2:17
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    When answering some questions we may need to be mindful of age of consent laws being different across the world. 13/14 in some places, with other countries at 16/18 or other. Dec 14, 2014 at 12:24
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    @MartinJevon That's always a good idea. What I mean is that underage people practice sex with each other, and in that case both (all?) participants are under the age of consent.
    – rath
    Dec 14, 2014 at 17:45
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It's a site on the Internet, if minors want to find something, they'll find it. Besides they could do much much worse than a textual Q&A site with voting.

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    But I'm talking about the minors accidentally viewing it even if they do not want to. Also, maybe we can add an option that will separate the explicit topics that are not applicable to minors. A checkbox that the Asker can check if the topic is not for minors. Oct 3, 2014 at 23:48
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    You could always use the "spoiler" markup for that: >!
    – jub0bs
    Oct 4, 2014 at 7:14
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    Hmm minors accidentally on a sex and intimacy q&a . . . I'm suspicious :-)
    – dsolimano
    Oct 4, 2014 at 14:48
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I think that we could make all the images links instead of pictures, the links would go to a new tab and show just the picture.

this would be an extra step that someone would have to take in order to see anything that is not PG-13 and it would also solve the issue of being Safe For Work (as far as pictures go, textual content could still be NSFW)

Every link could start or end with NSFW so that the person clicking the link would know that it wasn't something they should be looking at, at work. or even an ending like Adult Image so that if a child wanders onto the page they would know that this is not a safe site.


there are also plenty of DNS that actively block Adult sites, we may want to let them know that this sub-domain will be hosting Adult Data, and then it could be blocked by net nanny applications and such.

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  • I suspect that Robert's answer applies to this as well, being another attempt to mask content. Personally I agree, but can also see Robert's point. Dec 23, 2014 at 21:35

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