For the “not all censorship is bad” and anti-ao3 peeps, please read these screenshots about what sanitizing of the internet looks like. It always, always starts with “the undesirables,” and if you’re lucky or living in a good country that probably isn’t you right now. But there’s always fundamentalism and extremism behind these attempts, and eventually they will target you.
In this case, BTS (a Korean boyband) and their fans are being targeted by homophobic, sexist, religious extremists who want to sanitize the internet.
And government officials in one noteable case.
Several of the Bangladeshi fans (female) have been physically harassed and attacked in the past few days, by men, for their choice in music, because apparently BTS is “promoting homosexuality and atheism.”
After a cyber group with the mission to “clean cyberspace” began a targeted campaign to delete fan accounts. And publically admitted it.
Weird how those things feed into each other, huh? Strange how assholes feel emboldened by assholes- no matter the geographical location. Strange how “cleaning the internet” becomes targeting the gays and the non-believers before targeting women… Strange how people who have been around longer than you keep warning that this is the way things go.
Look, I get it, I really was exposed to things I shouldn’t have been. Both online and in real life. And I can see how those things messed me up. It took years of therapy but I can see it now.
But I’m not going to act like reading nsfw fan fiction on the internet was worse for me than reading mature books or finding my brother’s (physical) porn stash. Did it mess me up? Sure.
Did it mess me up more than food scarcity, undiagnosed learning and developmental disorders, rampant homophobia, corrective rape, and other forms of abuse and systemic oppression? No.
Have I lived though “purification” phases both IRL and online? Yes.
A lot of Millennials had to read Harry Potter under the covers, in secret, because of the “real sorcery” and “inherent danger of magic.” Or at least I think that’s what the moral brigade said to our parents before our books were torn from our hands and we were forbidden from entering our favorite world.
No one in my school was allowed to watch Pokémon because… demons? I think?? Either way, it was terrible and teaching us something horrific and we would soon all be worshipping the devil or whatever the moral police convinced our parents of.
Also, my mom had to read Lord of the Rings in secret because… “magic.” Keep in mind this censorship was done by the Apartheid government. Weird how they didn’t want a story about the difference even the smallest, most unassuming of all mythical creatures could make in the vanquishing of an oppressive overlord… and how people who may have cultural differences should work together… But! I’m sure it was the magic. Really./s
So yes, I can admit that unfettered internet access is bad for children. Porn? Bad for children. I don’t think anyone is saying that that’s okay.
But this is what internet censorship looks like. Homophobia. Sexism. Real life people fearing for their real life safety.
We’re not being facetious about censorship because we’ve experienced it.
And hey, maybe if I had been allowed to read Harry Potter and watch Pokémon I wouldn’t have been smuggling Dean Koontz and Stephen King novels out of the library instead. Maybe I wouldn’t have moved online, desperate for the fan fiction which would allow me to spend time in my favourite world and come across the age-inappropriate stuff (which, to be fair, was hard to tag back in the day).
Maybe I wouldn’t have read some truly terrible gay porn which definitely was not a good representation of gay relationships.
Maybe I wouldn’t have realized that… maybe gay people existed? And could have coffee-shop meet cutes and steamy sex? And sometimes women could do that too? Maybe I wasn’t… completely broken?
Yes, this was back in the day when searching “gay” on your library’s computer would be met with all the red flags and a disapproving librarian who would probably tell your parents. But the words “slash” and “lemon”? Well, that was just me looking up things for my homework! Nothing weird here.
And before you say “That wasn’t my experience!” This was South Africa. In the 00s. Hell, even now, in the 20s. There was no other computer access, and I only got that much access because I was on a scholarship to a very fancy school. The other kids who grew up in my area didn’t have that privilege.
Was this a fucked up way to learn and explore my sexuality? Of course. I don’t want that to be how my kids do it. But do I think those loop holes are better than nothing for kids in similar situations? Yes. Do those situations still exist in my country? Yes.
So yes, I can admit to the harm consuming age-inappropriate content did to me and still be anti-censorship, because they are not mutually exclusive.
I’m pro-age appropriate content. I’m definitely pro-tagging.
But I’ll never be pro-censorship because it’s never *actually* about the children.