Just to be absolutely clear so that we are all on the same page. Here is the Cohost policy that everybody seems to be angry about:
- child sexual abuse material is illegal, morally repugnant, and banned from cohost. we will fully cooperate with law enforcement in prosecuting anyone who posts it.
- “child sexual abuse material” refers to realistic depictions of human minors, either actual photographs/videos, or visual art difficult to distinguish from actual photographs/videos
- this also includes non-explicit depictions which are obviously intended to be sexual. (e.g. creepshots, underage “fashion modeling”, etc)
fictional 18+ content featuring minors
[...]- do not post photography or photorealistic depictions of minors
- as described above, photography and photorealistic sexual depictions of human minors are illegal, morally repugnant, and banned from cohost. please refer to that section (under “other prohibited content”) for full details.
- do not post sexually explicit non-photorealistic visual art of characters who are apparently minors.
- we will not be using third-party evidence (i.e. fan wikis) when determining if a character depicted is a minor.
- non-explicit art with suggestive themes is allowed with a mandatory content warning
- written material is generally permitted with a mandatory content warning, barring two major restrictions:
- do not post written fiction involving real people (i.e. RPF) who are minors or depicted as minors.
- this does not apply to content written in a documentary capacity (e.g. describing personal experiences) however these instances must include a content warning
- do not post anything encouraging, glorifying, or advocating sex between adults and minors.
I keep seeing posts that say "Why won't Staff ban child pornography?" and I am so confused. Where in this policy is child pornography allowed? The part where child pornography is described as "illegal, morally repugnant, and banned from cohost?" The part that bans "anything encouraging, glorifying, or advocating sex between adults and minors?" The part that bans "sexually explicit non-photorealistic visual art of characters who are apparently minors?"
Without the clause allowing "non-explicit art with suggestive themes" you couldn't have panels from Naruto or One Piece—which are in the teen section of your local book shop. And Cohost requires you to add a content warning for it, which Barnes & Noble does not do.
As for written materials, it's extremely difficult to determine at what point Lolita turns into Lolicon when it's in writing. We can't just ban any piece of written fiction where bad things happen to a minor because someone might be getting off on it. Even so the policy still bans "anything encouraging, glorifying, or advocating sex between adults and minors." So if a piece of writing does seem to be glorifying/eroticizing what's being depicted, then it's not allowed.
This policy, all in all, is stricter than what you'd find on most websites and is stricter than what is accepted in the mainstream vis a vis what you find in book stores.
Anybody who read this policy without the context of there having been a whole process of creating it and modifying it based on community feedback would look at this and understand it to be a policy banning child pornography. I don't understand what forms of child pornography aren't banned by this. Photos of erotic pottery depicting apparently underaged mythological figures? The policy is so specific because "pornography" isn't a very precise term. Avoiding vague language is good policy writing 101.
I can't think of anything that I would consider child pornography which this policy allows. Child pornography is already banned on Cohost. Nobody is advocating for pedophilia or defending child pornography. In fact, doing so is a bannable offense on Cohost under this policy and if you actually do see someone defending pedophilia on here then please report the post.
Also, as a reminder, nobody under the age of 16 is allowed on Cohost. This website is not meant to be "a safe place for minors."
