Strikethrough 2007 version Mangafox?!
In 2007, several individual LJ users were shut down due to issues of "child pornography" within the Harry Potter fandom. There was a lot of stuff about what constitutes porn and how do you separate between child porn and adult porn if the age of one person is unknown or that person looks old, or they look young but are of age, etc. A lot of communities went on lockdown. After that, people were careful with things like HarryxSnape and whatever else (I don't ship in HP). Big Picture issues that were raised were things like how obscene of stuff are people allowed to enjoy, and what types of content must be censored, and free speech in an American website.
Now, the owners of Mangafox were notified by Google that they have to take down whatever could be categorized as child pornography. So, the owners took down everything "adult." The owners of Mangafox, Noez, are not the staffers of Mangafox, and everyone got very confused. Those of you familiar with Mangafox and Onemanga will know that Mangafox carries a lot of series with more narrow appeal and that are more appropriate for older readers. Ie, MF carries all those yaoi/yuri/shota/loli/smut/hentai series, as well as things that are not sexual but still "adult" due to violence (but a lot of series aimed at young boys, such as those found in Weekly Jump, are very violent, so...) Anything that's been tagged with those categories has been taken down. Some series have been reevaluated at the request of users, and most of them have gone back up because they are only suggestive, not outright bad. You will notice that even though Haru wo Daiteita is only sex between adults, it has been reevaluated and remains removed, probably because it is very graphic and gratuitous and contains sex in every chapter.
I definitely understand the motives of Google and why Noez started taking down series just like that. What I'm wondering about is how this will impact fandom and what type of precedent it will set. Freedom of speech means that as long as people are of age, they can view other people of age having sex or being gory murderers or whatever. I can watch R-rated movies, so why shouldn't I be able to read manga of similar ratings? Though I wonder why MF couldn't have first restricted the viewing of mature series to signed-in users, as that would greatly reduce who could read it. From there, they could have then taken the time and gone through each series with a mature categorization and seen if it should have been removed. I've definitely read stuff that is what I find to be inappropriate and creepy (Child Epicurean), but what about pubescent people? Seeing as teenagers are the most desirable to men, they are sexualized often and to a high degree, and they can often appear to be of legal age. Also, what about non-sexual but still mature series? We don't have much of a problem putting that sort of thing on prime time TV, so...
Hm, all in all I'm a little disappointed that this happened, but it's not like it detracts from the series I read that much. Almost all of the series that have been removed aren't my thing, and people who are really into it can directly download most of them. It's just a great inconvenience. However, if that will prevent the taking down of an entire, wonderful website because they're not monitoring possible posts of child pornography (though do drawings of fictional people even count? This, too, was an issue in HP), then we must agree to it.
I know there are people on my flist who've read or currently read Kodomo no Jikan and Yomeiro Choice or Vagabond, all of which have been reevaluated and removed. This will definitely strike a chord within manga/anime fandom because of cultural differences that make shota/loli less bad in Japan than here. It reminds me of Niigata and even Banyu, which have a tendency to overemphasize Hibari's youth to the point that I find it a bit creepy. What do you all think?
Now, the owners of Mangafox were notified by Google that they have to take down whatever could be categorized as child pornography. So, the owners took down everything "adult." The owners of Mangafox, Noez, are not the staffers of Mangafox, and everyone got very confused. Those of you familiar with Mangafox and Onemanga will know that Mangafox carries a lot of series with more narrow appeal and that are more appropriate for older readers. Ie, MF carries all those yaoi/yuri/shota/loli/smut/hentai series, as well as things that are not sexual but still "adult" due to violence (but a lot of series aimed at young boys, such as those found in Weekly Jump, are very violent, so...) Anything that's been tagged with those categories has been taken down. Some series have been reevaluated at the request of users, and most of them have gone back up because they are only suggestive, not outright bad. You will notice that even though Haru wo Daiteita is only sex between adults, it has been reevaluated and remains removed, probably because it is very graphic and gratuitous and contains sex in every chapter.
I definitely understand the motives of Google and why Noez started taking down series just like that. What I'm wondering about is how this will impact fandom and what type of precedent it will set. Freedom of speech means that as long as people are of age, they can view other people of age having sex or being gory murderers or whatever. I can watch R-rated movies, so why shouldn't I be able to read manga of similar ratings? Though I wonder why MF couldn't have first restricted the viewing of mature series to signed-in users, as that would greatly reduce who could read it. From there, they could have then taken the time and gone through each series with a mature categorization and seen if it should have been removed. I've definitely read stuff that is what I find to be inappropriate and creepy (Child Epicurean), but what about pubescent people? Seeing as teenagers are the most desirable to men, they are sexualized often and to a high degree, and they can often appear to be of legal age. Also, what about non-sexual but still mature series? We don't have much of a problem putting that sort of thing on prime time TV, so...
Hm, all in all I'm a little disappointed that this happened, but it's not like it detracts from the series I read that much. Almost all of the series that have been removed aren't my thing, and people who are really into it can directly download most of them. It's just a great inconvenience. However, if that will prevent the taking down of an entire, wonderful website because they're not monitoring possible posts of child pornography (though do drawings of fictional people even count? This, too, was an issue in HP), then we must agree to it.
I know there are people on my flist who've read or currently read Kodomo no Jikan and Yomeiro Choice or Vagabond, all of which have been reevaluated and removed. This will definitely strike a chord within manga/anime fandom because of cultural differences that make shota/loli less bad in Japan than here. It reminds me of Niigata and even Banyu, which have a tendency to overemphasize Hibari's youth to the point that I find it a bit creepy. What do you all think?