PG13 Discussion

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Hello fellow Four Housians!

In an effort to maintain the quality on our site, the staff has decided to establish guidelines for a rating system at Four Houses. Just like the Motion Picture Association of America, we are trying to establish what is and isn't right for our site. WE NEED YOUR INPUT! As valued members, the staff wants to know what you feel is appropriate when posting. If you have any comments, please post them here. The staff looks forward to reading them all.

Thanks,

Cass

[Esmeralda Mendez]

Well I know TJ has a history of drug use in the past, and I figured it was probably okay since I posted a warning or whatever.

But now that that's clarified I''m not going to mention it anymore.

But would I need to edit it out of previous posts?

EDIT:

And I know drug use has been a big part of who TJ is during these past posts and he's slowly bringing Ezzie into his world of trouble, but I was thinking maybe it should be okay if we did basically what most decent people do with the issue of sex.

When writing, we could imply that certain students are into that whole thing, but never post them in the act. Do a little scene skip. I think that should be pretty acceptable, right?

[Mary Evans]

I think that depends on how explicit it is to be honest... this was just our interpretation of PG13 so... if it's slight implications... then it's not the end of the world. However, if it's explicit then... well Proboards does have a rule against PG13 so if they happen to show up and find something they don't agree with they have the right to take the entire site down... But I wouldn't worry too much since... they are not known for snooping around, especially little sites like ours. The main reason we felt it was important to put down these rules is really for the comfort of all our members. Not to mention that I have heard it through the grapevine that we are considered a strict site haha so I think we like having a set standard of behaviour in general just to make everything clear.

As for sex, in Scott's post it says that it's okay to imply that sex has taken place... but not to really... show them pillow talking

[Scott Ryder G7]

Yes, Ezzie, that's how it should be handled. When it comes to the areas of explicits (drug use, sex, violence, etc.) it is ok to imply things. We just don't want the details written out for all to read. With the issue of drugs, as long as you are not promoting drug use or describing TJ using the drugs in a detailed manner, you should be fine.

EDIT: Mary beat me to the post, but she explained it well.

[Ariane Chan]

What I basically wrote about this topic in staff is this: as long as there's only vague references when it comes to sex and such situations, then it should be okay. References should be unobvious - certainly not direct or obvious to the reader - therefore ensuring that members younger than thirteen will not understand the underlying implications unless they are already knowledgeable in this area (and many of them are nowadays ).

Sex is, for me, the only major problem for 4Houses in terms of PG-13 censorship. However, I'm sure we all know not to have too graphic scenes of violence and death. Please remember it is certainly possible that children under thirteen may not only read your romantic posts but your violent posts too, so keep that in mind when you write with violent vocabulary. Again, I think it's fine if it is vague and not too directly stated.

Back to love again, I'm finding it most difficult to rate homosexual scenes. Homosexual love - is that considered PG-13? Are kids younger than thirteen nowadays knowledgeable enough about gay people that we members (myself especially) can post gay couples kissing (and doing more - to the extent of what heretosexual couples are allowed to vaguely imply in their posts)? I'm not sure. I have done that so far, but it worries me that I may be offending people.

As Cass has said, we staff would really appreciate it if all, or as many members could please submit their opinion, however brief or small it may be. We would like to gain a general consensus so we can make as many people as possible content with the way this site is run - because this site is for us all. We run it, post in it, for each other, not only for our own benefits; it is a community, a family, a team. Everyone's opinion counts here, so please, besides Ezzie, we'd like to see some more responses from you wonderful members out there.

[Mary Evans]

Oct 17, 2008 19:12:34 GMT Ariane Chan said:

Back to love again, I'm finding it most difficult to rate homosexual scenes. Homosexual love - is that considered PG-13? Are kids younger than thirteen nowadays knowledgeable enough about gay people that we members (myself especially) can post gay couples kissing (and doing more - to the extent of what heretosexual couples are allowed to vaguely imply in their posts)? I'm not sure. I have done that so far, but it worries me that I may be offending people.

Well if it helps my opinion (Canadian opinion) is that love is love and sex is sex no matter the gender or sex of the people involved. I, personally, would not be in the least offended if two characters of the same sex had relations in the same way as would be acceptable for characters of differing sexes. However, it goes the other way, if I told a straight couple that something is too much... same would go for a gay couple. So yes, one and the same to me at least

[Wynd Lehane]

Personally, being a little older than thirteen, I think the PG-13 restriction stinks. I know that it is a rule imposed on us by Proboards and not the staff. But I still don't like it. I'm sure we all know teenagers that drink, smoke, think dirty, have sex, curse... etc. Those things are a part of life. They happen.

That being said I think those things could happen in a post as long as they don't become gratuitous. No one will want to read a post in the characters do nothing but swear. This site helps us become better writers and I think it is unfortunate that Proboards limits us. But I guess the real question is, what is PG-13?

I found this website which lists a bunch of Pg-13 rated movies. It seems like even the MPAA has a hard time determining what makes a PG-13 movie PG-13. Some of the movies, you wonder why they aren't rated R and some you wonder why they aren't rated G.

So, my final thought is: Anything that is within the realm of a teenager goes.

[Julian Fallon S7]

My only issue is knowing the boundries. I'm far above the pg-13 rating and it has been years since I have had to worry about it. This is what has caused so many problems for me. Where are my boundries? What is Julian allowed to actually post that he has done to his wife, and what isn't he? I must say this makes some of his posts extremely hard, and I have even had to have Cass's assistance in cleaning one up. My mind was as far from pg-13 as it could get, but it was writing for a seventeen year old boy, so everyone could imagine what was going through my mind. This brings me to my opinion. As long as we know what our boundries are, what we can and can't actually post them doing, I have no problems with the pg-13 rating.

We just need to know exactly where the line is drawn. Right now it's still a grey area to me.

[Drake Manning]

Those are very valid concerns, Julian, and I'm glad though that you are really trying to get into your charries heads and make them realistic. Unfortunately, many of us are beyond the age of 13, and so many of us could handle such content. But still, for those that aren't much older than 13, I think it's good of us to be careful. As for having Cass help you, I think that's a good system. Perhaps we all should run our questionable posts past a friend who can give us input on whether it's appropriate. Unfortunately, there's not really a black and white line like we'd all prefer. However, hopefully with the list that was posted by through Scott's account, we can have a good idea. As for Julian, it's only natural that he and Cass would have sex... they are married after all. I just think that for sex, it goes beyond PG-13 if you explain the actual act of it. Saying that it happened is fine and dandy, I think.

Anyways... I hope this discussion is helping everyone. I really do think though that since it's such a gray line, it's always good to be safe rather than sorry. And, if you ever want to go beyond PG-13, I'd recommend the PM method where you simply roleplay with the characters via PM so that only you can see.

Thanks for the input so far, everyone!