It's probably not in my best interest to post this, as I risk the attention of some misguided social justice warrior or the wrath of the thought police, but I can't help but comment.
Disclaimer: I am not endorsing ERP involving children.
First of all, if the written portrayal of minors in sexually charged situations is child pornography, then I can walk into any bookstore in the continental United States and buy child pornography right now, legally.
Here's a few living authors that are child pornographers by this ridiculous definition:
George R.R. Martin
Anne Bishop
Anne Rice
Neal Stephenson
Patrick Rothfuss
Brent Weeks
Steven King
And these are just the few that I've recalled and read in the short moments I've spent typing this post. There are doubtless, countless others.
The idea that a written portrayal can be categorized this way is completely ridiculous, and suggestions that you could get in trouble simply by ERPing it with another consenting adult is flat out ludicrous - though ERPIng with a minor could certainly get you in trouble, that's not what I'm addressing here.
Secondly, let's check age of consent and what constitutes a minor for legal definitions. In the US it's almost universally 18 aside from a few cases where it's 16 or there are allowances for those close in age. For our friends in England, it's 16. In Iceland, 14 (I think?). My point in bringing this up is that age of consent is completely arbitrary and varies from place to place. Is everyone in Iceland a monster? What about England? They violate our well established idea that the magic number 18 is somehow indicative of a person's ability to handle sex, and that anyone that goes under this number is automatically a monster. Is the entire nation of England populated by child molester enablers?
Third, Eorzea is a pre-industrialized place. I doubt they even have notions like age of consent. Don't mistake me as endorsing these activities, but even in the real world ideas like "teenager" and "adolescence" are modern notions. In Eorzea, unless you are educated and living in the city, it's very likely that no one cares how old you are after puberty. Fortunately for them, Square Enix is smart enough to avoid defining anyone's age to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of modern culture (seriously how old are ANY of the characters?)
Finally, and this is a sort of a broader topic but it's related and endlessly amusing for me, the vast majority of RPers are usually fine with participating in the following types of RP (especially when their character is the target, who doesn't love playing a victim now and then?):
Torture.
Kidnapping.
Murder.
Mutilation.
Theft.
Rape (so so very common in back-story).
Violent conflict resolution.
But violate some arbitrary number and idea about age of consent? Suddenly you are crossing the line. I'm not saying go out and have a fun time ERPing with underage characters, I'm just saying it's silly to draw the line here after everything else the average RPer is ok with. Are there people out there that are only doing this sort of thing to get their rocks off? Of course, and you'd rightfully avoid them. But are there people who are using this to tell a compelling story? Probably not very often, but it's possible. I don't consider anything off limits in my writing, and as my roleplaying is largely an extension of that I don't consider anything in roleplay off limits.
Disclaimer: I am not endorsing ERP involving children.
First of all, if the written portrayal of minors in sexually charged situations is child pornography, then I can walk into any bookstore in the continental United States and buy child pornography right now, legally.
Here's a few living authors that are child pornographers by this ridiculous definition:
George R.R. Martin
Anne Bishop
Anne Rice
Neal Stephenson
Patrick Rothfuss
Brent Weeks
Steven King
And these are just the few that I've recalled and read in the short moments I've spent typing this post. There are doubtless, countless others.
The idea that a written portrayal can be categorized this way is completely ridiculous, and suggestions that you could get in trouble simply by ERPing it with another consenting adult is flat out ludicrous - though ERPIng with a minor could certainly get you in trouble, that's not what I'm addressing here.
Secondly, let's check age of consent and what constitutes a minor for legal definitions. In the US it's almost universally 18 aside from a few cases where it's 16 or there are allowances for those close in age. For our friends in England, it's 16. In Iceland, 14 (I think?). My point in bringing this up is that age of consent is completely arbitrary and varies from place to place. Is everyone in Iceland a monster? What about England? They violate our well established idea that the magic number 18 is somehow indicative of a person's ability to handle sex, and that anyone that goes under this number is automatically a monster. Is the entire nation of England populated by child molester enablers?
Third, Eorzea is a pre-industrialized place. I doubt they even have notions like age of consent. Don't mistake me as endorsing these activities, but even in the real world ideas like "teenager" and "adolescence" are modern notions. In Eorzea, unless you are educated and living in the city, it's very likely that no one cares how old you are after puberty. Fortunately for them, Square Enix is smart enough to avoid defining anyone's age to avoid upsetting the delicate sensibilities of modern culture (seriously how old are ANY of the characters?)
Finally, and this is a sort of a broader topic but it's related and endlessly amusing for me, the vast majority of RPers are usually fine with participating in the following types of RP (especially when their character is the target, who doesn't love playing a victim now and then?):
Torture.
Kidnapping.
Murder.
Mutilation.
Theft.
Rape (so so very common in back-story).
Violent conflict resolution.
But violate some arbitrary number and idea about age of consent? Suddenly you are crossing the line. I'm not saying go out and have a fun time ERPing with underage characters, I'm just saying it's silly to draw the line here after everything else the average RPer is ok with. Are there people out there that are only doing this sort of thing to get their rocks off? Of course, and you'd rightfully avoid them. But are there people who are using this to tell a compelling story? Probably not very often, but it's possible. I don't consider anything off limits in my writing, and as my roleplaying is largely an extension of that I don't consider anything in roleplay off limits.
