honestly it's not a hard thing to do. just write as normal, use a disclaimer as mentioned a few posts before this one and, to make it really easy, never ever mention age or school year or anything like that when writing.

[Yukito]

honestly it's not a hard thing to do. just write as normal, use a disclaimer as mentioned a few posts before this one and, to make it really easy, never ever mention age or school year or anything like that when writing.

Well, you can also put your characters in university age if you need to mention their ages(18 to 24).

[DaddySith]

sadly always waiting to see if the policy has changed

[Yukito]

sadly always waiting to see if the policy has changed

Unfortunately, that's a policy by TMD itself.
I spoke to a Sales Rep last night and asked about adult content.
The rep told me adult content was allowed, but, their site builder service didn't allow adult content. And also that any illegal content(-18) is reason to alert the site owner if brought to their attention.
I asked because I was considering moving away from uCoz. I still plan to, but searching for a good and easy solution for me, like uCoz has been providing. I'll see how long I can stay with them first.

sadly always waiting to see if the policy has changed

Unfortunately, that's a policy by TMD itself.
I spoke to a Sales Rep last night and asked about adult content.
The rep told me adult content was allowed, but, their site builder service didn't allow adult content. And also that any illegal content(-18) is reason to alert the site owner if brought to their attention.
I asked because I was considering moving away from uCoz. I still plan to, but searching for a good and easy solution for me, like uCoz has been providing. I'll see how long I can stay with them first.

Is TMD based in USA or Germany?

In USA, the definition of child pornography hinges on "visual depiction" and excludes fictional written material...

Under federal law, child pornography is any “visual depiction” of a minor engaging in “sexually explicit conduct.” A visual depiction is basically a picture, video or digital image. A minor is anyone under 18 years old. “Sexually explicit conduct” includes a variety of sexual activity including intercourse, masturbation and “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area” of any person. Nudity can be considered “sexually explicit conduct” if it is sexually suggestive. https://www.pagepate.com/experience/criminal-defense/federal-crimes/federal-child-pornography/#:~:text=It%20is%20illegal%20under%20federal,are%20subsequently%20destroyed%20or%20deleted.


Canada is the only country I know of to have included written fiction in an all-encompassing definition of child pornography, and the part of the definition including "any written material" has been ruled as unconstitutional by a Court in Québec, as the judge felt it caused too much a restriction on free speech. Canada's Supreme Court has refused to hear the case on appeal because this would have caused the caselaw to be expanded to all Canada, instead of only Québec.

In short, writing underage sex in a work of fiction does not constitute child porn according to US law, and now according to the caselaw where I live (Quebec).

I understand the concept of not allowing written fiction with -18 and it will be safer to keep to 18+, but saying it is illegal is factually false from a legal standpoint in USA and probably in Germany too. A member got recently banned because images depicting underage characters were included in his stories and he was a repeat offender.

The big difference here is "visual depiction" vs. "written material".

[DaddySith]

I always come in every once in a while just to see if the rules have changed

TMD = "Adult content must meet the local community standards and the non-obscenity criteria regulated by US legislation." https://www.tmdhosting.com/terms-acceptable-use-policy.html

As for the definition of what constitutes obscene content as per USA legislation, things seem pretty fuzzy and I'd love to have a US lawyer chime in. There's the Miller test...

"The Miller test for obscenity includes the following criteria: (1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

As for child porn as well as obscenity, the law and caselaw are all about visual depiction...

" In addition, visual representations, such as drawings, cartoons, or paintings that appear to depict minors engaged in sexual activity and are obscene are also illegal under federal law." https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/obscenity

Many sites such as Literotica want to be on the safe side and set rules requiring all characters be 18+ even in written-only material. I am not an expert in US legislation and as I said, I'd love to hear a US lawyer on this topic. All I remember is that when I first joined in 2020, some members told me that depicting underage sex in written fiction wasn't illegal.

[SoftGameHunter]

It's not illegal. Period. But a lot of host services don't care and choose to make the restriction anyway. They're either uptight, or they don't want the potential bad press, or they worry about slap suits, or whatever. America has ample options for making people restrict their expression or consumption or thinking on various topics, all perfectly legal.

[GEMINIGUY]

TMD = "Adult content must meet the local community standards and the non-obscenity criteria regulated by US legislation." https://www.tmdhosting.com/terms-acceptable-use-policy.html

As for the definition of what constitutes obscene content as per USA legislation, things seem pretty fuzzy and I'd love to have a US lawyer chime in. There's the Miller test...

"The Miller test for obscenity includes the following criteria: (1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value."

As for child porn as well as obscenity, the law and caselaw are all about visual depiction...

" In addition, visual representations, such as drawings, cartoons, or paintings that appear to depict minors engaged in sexual activity and are obscene are also illegal under federal law." https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/obscenity

Many sites such as Literotica want to be on the safe side and set rules requiring all characters be 18+ even in written-only material. I am not an expert in US legislation and as I said, I'd love to hear a US lawyer on this topic. All I remember is that when I first joined in 2020, some members told me that depicting underage sex in written fiction wasn't illegal.

You can't depict underage sex in written fiction. As you quoted, it's visual, as in drawings, cartoons and paintings. And yes, in the U.S. underage erotic writing is legal.

I'd like to point out though, there are billions of cartoons images on the internet depicting underaged characters engaging in sexual acts, no one has made any efforts to remove any of it.

[Yukito]

TMD and other site hosts don't employ bots to keep scanning data. They rely on reports from whoever visits the sites hosted by them. And in that case, that german agency was one of them.
The big thing about their report system, is that they usually require pointing out offending URLs one by one. GoDaddy itself is like this.

Other than that, this site receives visitors from all over the world, not just the US.
In Brazil, any material depicting underage sex is considered child sexual abuse material Be it written, image, video, etc. Brazil has no leniency in this case, there is not a single "free speech" host in Brazil or a host that allows that kind of material.

As I said, despite the US law being more open, TMD upholds the law of the country the user is in, not the law of the country the site is registered as.

TMD and other site hosts don't employ bots to keep scanning data. They rely on reports from whoever visits the sites hosted by them. And in that case, that german agency was one of them.
The big thing about their report system, is that they usually require pointing out offending URLs one by one. GoDaddy itself is like this.

Other than that, this site receives visitors from all over the world, not just the US.
In Brazil, any material depicting underage sex is considered child sexual abuse material Be it written, image, video, etc. Brazil has no leniency in this case, there is not a single "free speech" host in Brazil or a host that allows that kind of material.

As I said, despite the US law being more open, TMD upholds the law of the country the user is in, not the law of the country the site is registered as.

That's a big problem. With this line of reasoning, and given that we have users from all around the world, we will all end up forced to abide by the laws of the most restrictive countries.

In South Korea, age of consent is now 20 years old. Thus, any of my CONSENSUAL stories with 18-year-old characters depicts an act that is illegal in that country. Will some Korean user report it?

When I first joined here, I read a post from Lois where she sounded like anyone who reads Ravishu in a country more restrictive than USA should use high caution. I even wrote her and she had confirmed that the site was hosted in USA and was therefore subjected to US laws.

In practice, the 18+ rule is now a well-established norm among erotica sites and we are less likely to get into trouble now.

[DaddySith]

Was a discord or telegram type thing discussed?
That way the stories we can't post are still shared and we stay connected

[Yukito]

Was a discord or telegram type thing discussed?
That way the stories we can't post are still shared and we stay connected

I think, unless we can work out our own messaging service(there are ways to), we can use Guilded, which is more open than Discord. Telegram is also good, but the supreme court in Brazil is causing trouble with it.
No system is secure unless the members in it exercise caution. I always use VPN when coming here, but other measures should be taken:
Employ regional moderators, who can accept or deny permission to access the channels;
Lock up everything under permission;

Another thing we can do is use GabChat, it's fairly secure, as it has a feature called Private Rooms(which members can only access the chatrooms if they are invited). Also, private room messages are deleted after 30 days.

Both Discord and Guilded can be a PITA if the moderators don't take care.

[DaddySith]

Was a discord or telegram type thing discussed?
That way the stories we can't post are still shared and we stay connected

I think, unless we can work out our own messaging service(there are ways to), we can use Guilded, which is more open than Discord. Telegram is also good, but the supreme court in Brazil is causing trouble with it.
No system is secure unless the members in it exercise caution. I always use VPN when coming here, but other measures should be taken:
Employ regional moderators, who can accept or deny permission to access the channels;
Lock up everything under permission;

Another thing we can do is use GabChat, it's fairly secure, as it has a feature called Private Rooms(which members can only access the chatrooms if they are invited). Also, private room messages are deleted after 30 days.

Both Discord and Guilded can be a PITA if the moderators don't take care.

There's also session encryption messages. Or wickr. Never tried gab.

If it's cool could I dm you?

[Yukito]

Was a discord or telegram type thing discussed?
That way the stories we can't post are still shared and we stay connected

I think, unless we can work out our own messaging service(there are ways to), we can use Guilded, which is more open than Discord. Telegram is also good, but the supreme court in Brazil is causing trouble with it.
No system is secure unless the members in it exercise caution. I always use VPN when coming here, but other measures should be taken:
Employ regional moderators, who can accept or deny permission to access the channels;
Lock up everything under permission;

Another thing we can do is use GabChat, it's fairly secure, as it has a feature called Private Rooms(which members can only access the chatrooms if they are invited). Also, private room messages are deleted after 30 days.

Both Discord and Guilded can be a PITA if the moderators don't take care.

There's also session encryption messages. Or wickr. Never tried gab.

If it's cool could I dm you?

DM me on Gab.com or here. My ID there is Yukito Nakamura.