Age Statement
| Synonyms: | age requirement, age restriction |
| See also: | mailing list, archive, community, zine |
| Click here for articles related to this term on Fanlore. | |
An age statement is a positive affirmation by a fan that they are of a certain age (usually eighteen). Age statements are sometimes required by zine publishers, or by the moderators of a mailing list, community or archive, as a way of keeping underage viewers from accessing adult content. In other cases, the moderators will simply assume that the viewers are of age until proven otherwise (taking the fact that they’re participating as an indirect age statement), or they simply do not mind if adult content is accessed by people under 18.
In the '80s, the phrase Age Statement Required was used as a rating or category, corresponding more or less to adult, or het + K/S.
Contents |
History
At SeKWesterCon, Too in 1977, explicit art (nudes) was included in the art show, there was discussion of explicit stories in the panels, and explicit stories were nominated for Fan Q Awards. (R&R, the first zine series to label itself adult brought out its first three issues between SeKWesterCon and SeKWesterCon, Too.) This was the first time fans had seen this sort of material in fandom, and some fans had very strong reactions. A few month later, Spectrum # 35 covered the pornography controversy:
- "Last summer a feud broke out in STrekdom.... The feud was over the issue of pornography and indecency in fanfic. To some people the whole controversy seemed absurd since most people in fandom feel that fans tend to be more open-minded and liberal than the rest of the mundane world.... The height of the debates occurred last summer and early in the fall of 1977. The reason that the pressure died down is due in part... to pressure from STW The Star Trek Welcommittee to keep everyone away from everyone else's throats.""[1]
This led to decisions throughout Trek fandom to label any fanzine with explicit sexual material as such, and not to knowingly sell such material to minors by requiring an age statement for purchase. By a decade later, when the Surak awards debuted, zines nominated were divided into two categories: "general" (which became gen) and "age statement required".
Examples
Zines
Most zine editors require age statements from fans who want to purchase adult-rated zines. [2] [3]
Awards
In early fan fiction awards (such as the Surak Awards), the categories were often broken down into General and Age Statement Required (today's adult, or maybe today's het + slash).
Mailing Lists
To access online content on mailing lists or password protected archives[4], fans are asked to email their age statement. This can also be a way to keep trolls or sockpuppets out of community spaces. The ScullySlash adults-only mailing list, for instance, states:
An age statement is required, please send an email .... with your age and that you're aware of the adult content of the list and tell us where you heard about the list (this website, a friend, from another list, etc.) [5]
LiveJournal
On LiveJournal and similar social networking sites, fans have the option to list their birthdate in their LJ profile. This may be required by mods of LJ communities where adult content is locked. For instance, on the profile page of the community Harryslash, for slash about Harry Potter, fans are asked to "comment with your age and year of birth or an age statement" and "verify that your year of birth or age statement is visible on your profile",[6] but these additional statements are not always required and the mods often simply take a look at the user’s profile before granting community membership.
Archives
Archives that allow adult content (like Archive of Our Own) or are restricted to adult content only (like adultfanfiction.net and the Restricted Section) use different methods to ensure that the adult content is not accessible for minors. To get to the stories on aff.net, you first have to click on “I am 18 years of age or older.“,[7] which leads to a page where you have to enter your birthdate and legal name:
To enter this site, you must certify and affirm, under the penalties of perjury, your actual date of birth in the following Birth Date Verifier™ form:
"I hereby affirm, under the penalties of perjury pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. §1746, that I was born on the following month, day, and year:"
[…]
"I also agree that this transaction is governed by the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act), 15 U.S.C. §7000, et seq"[8]
On the Restricted Section, on the other hand, you have to register in order to have access to the stories, and enter your birthdate as part of the registration process.[9]
Other archives, like the Archive of Our Own, simply remind you again that the story is adult-rated after you click on the link, after which you have to agree that you are willing (or legally allowed) to access the content.
In Other Countries
Germany
Age statements are common in German fandom too, but bigger archives have to deal with some additional requirements. According to German law, it is forbidden to grant minors access to pornographic content and content that is considered obviously harmful to minors. Therefore all archives explicitly forbid such content, but especially with regard to pornographic material the question what is and what isn't pornographic is the matter of some debate. This has led to an extended downtime of YaoiGermany in 2004/2005, after a father alerted jugendschutz.net (the cross-national organization for the protection of minors on the internet, founded by The Youth Ministries of the German Federal States) to the fact that adult stories (explicit but not pornographic) could be accessed by his daughter by simply clicking through the warnings.[10] Given the fact that a high number of authors who post adult stories to the archive are minors themselves, this called for a creative solution. The archive maintainers discussed a number of methods with the authorities to make it more difficult for minors to read the stories and they decided to make them available only between 9pm and 6am, since methods used by other archives were not considered sufficient.[11]
Animexx, on the other hand, used a different method even before this. In order to gain access, the users have to have an account, and they have to verify their age, which they can either do by entering their ID card number (Germany only; every citizen age 16 or older has an ID card), or they can mail the copy of another official document (passport, diver’s license, foreign ID cards).[12]
FanFiktion.de refined this system and combined the two in 2009. They introduced two new ratings (P18-AVL and P18-AVL Slash) and restricted access to those stories to registered users who verified their age (currently only possible for citizens of Germany, Austria and Switzerland) once a month and for unverified (but registered) users between 11pm and 4am.[13]
It should be noted that it is still against the rules of these archives to post pornographic content (as a precaution PWPs are forbidden), because that would only be possible if the sites were restricted to a verified adult membership in their entirety.
References
- ↑ Verba, Joan. Boldly Writing. F T L Pubns, March 26, 2003, pg 40
- ↑ Black Jag Publishing, Black Jag Publishing Order Form. Accessed November 28, 2008.
- ↑ Oblique Publications, Oblique Publications would like to announce the availability of a new Clark/Lex Smallville slash zine "An AGE STATEMENT that the purchaser is of legal age and understands the nature of what they are purchasing is absolutely REQUIRED with every order." Accessed November 28, 2008.
- ↑ For example: PSA, the Potter Slash Archive: "The NC-17 stories and art on this site have been passworded to protect younger HP fans from accessing and reading stories with graphic content. The password is available through the livejournal community psa_dungeons. Please read the intro post and leave a statement."
- ↑ Scully Slash Archive, The Email Lists Accessed November 28, 2008.
- ↑ Harryslash, harryslash - Community Profile Accessed November 28, 2008.
- ↑ Adultfanfiction.net homepage, accessed October 04, 2009.
- ↑ The Birthdate Verification Page on aff.net, accessed October 04, 2009.
- ↑ RestrictedSection.org User Registration, accessed October 04, 2009.
- ↑ Zukunft des Archivs on the YaoiGermany Web-Forum, accessed October 04, 2009.
- ↑ YaoiGermany Hilfe-Zentrum, in reference to the method used by Animexx, accessed October 04, 2009.
- ↑ Animexx Anfang (Wiki)
- ↑ FanFiktion.de – Hilfe/Faq on the topic of AVL ratings, accessed October 04, 2009.
