If Disney/Pixar studios called
you today and offered to make a film adaptation of your blog, what rating would
the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) give the movie?
Ready. Set.
Rate it!
The answer to this question provides a general idea of whether or not your
blog belongs in the Adult Content (AC)
category – where participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2013 is
concerned. Blogs that have adult content are REQUIRED to add this category to
their blog title on the sign-up list. Like any other category, this should be
done when first signing up to the challenge, as Damyanti explained in January. All
other categories are optional for participants to add to their blog during the
signup process.
The guidelines and enforcement
procedures for Adult Content categorization, where necessary, stem from our
concerns that there is no age limit on who can participate, so long as they
have a blog. So with that in mind, we decided that our definition of what
constitutes “Adult Content” is based on whether the blog contains material that
would be inappropriate for teens.
Adult Content – The A to Z Challenge Co-Host Dictionary
Reference:
We define Adult Content as
anything that might be something a teenager shouldn’t be viewing. By “Adult,”
this means nudity, frequent use of harsh language, gore, sexual content, and
overtly violent content. By “Content,” this includes blog posts, images, graphics
and any other related material that is on display at your blog.
Adult Content Checklist - Does your blog contain any of the following material? If
the answer is YES, then it should be marked as such with the (AC) category code:
- Nudity
- Frequent use of harsh language
- Gore
- Sexually oriented language
- Explicit Violence
Again, does your Blog contain any of the above material? If
the answer is YES, then it should be marked as such with the (AC) category code!
As our guidelines are fairly
simple to follow, this is not rocket science; it should be easy to figure out
whether your blog fits into the Adult Content category. If your blog contains
any of the above listed material, you MUST have your blog labeled with (AC) on
the signup list. Otherwise, your blog will be flagged and removed.
Our thought right now is also
that a few profane words in some blog posts don’t require the blog to be listed
in the (AC) category. Those of you who may be one of the many Non-AC blogs,
however, are not out of the woods regarding the nature of the content you
publish. That said, if you are among the Non-AC bloggers who do happen to have
some harsh language here and there, we urge you to at least put a Disclaimer/Warning
at the top of your posts with questionable content. The Disclaimers/Warnings
can help to protect you if a teen participant happens to come across your blog
during the A to Z Challenge.
25 comments:
Nicely explained. Good that we now have a post to send folks to when they ask. Thanks!
Tina @ Life is Good
Co-host, April 2013 A-Z Challenge Blog
@TinaLifeisGood, #atozchallenge
Put very nicely, last year I came across a very adult blog, though I'm not a prude thought it was not for viewing unless it stated what it contained,
Yvonne.
I dont use any of the the above although I am yet to run into a blog that is truly offensive, I guess at some point I'm bound to crash into one at some point this is the internet.
And to tell the truth I think us British are less offended by things like this than Americans are, but I may be wrong.
And the internet is an international medium so some words or political and religious views we think are not offensive might be to others. Luckily I am internationally safe at all levels so PHEW. Yes OK the odd person gets eaten from time to time but in a non violent way, after all I am British.
Rob Z Tobor
Hi Nicole .. thanks - that's helpful .. because there are one or two blogs out there with content I don't really want to see ...
My blog isn't that opinionated and I try and keep all things reasonable to encourage as many interested parties as possible
I have in past years come across blogs that have given me the creeps - I know I can move on ... but I'd rather they weren't there ..
As Tina says - good to be aware of ... cheers Hilary
Nice post. Thank you!
Well stated!
What about the case of say to occasional nude drawing? Nothing more than what you might see in a PG-13 movie?
In my tastes and what I have had on my blog(s) in past is firmly grounded in the PG category with maybe a breif step into PG-13.
I am not sure it would merit an "Adult" tag.
--
Tim Brannan
The Other Side
Red Sonja: She-Devil with a Sword
The Freedom of Nonbelief
The Witch
I'm pretty sure I'm PG 13, that's okay right?
In the past I have used swears...back before I moved east, but I don't think anyone's gonna be going back into my archives to read my old rants. Thanks for the guideline!! :)
At the most, my blog would be PG-13 with some of the authors I feature. Mostly, it's PG.
Sia McKye OVER COFFEE
Sounds fair to me!
Rob,
I travel a lot, and I'm always pleased to see how non-American societies deal with this. This is why I welcome the opportunity to leave America from time to time.
Jolie
When it comes to something of this nature--that is screening of content--I think it comes down to who we want to exclude and include. If we want all players to participate in comfort think it's fair to say we are going to protect those who are offended by certain things by labeling the content. This shouldn't be considered a silly or an unreasonable request by anyone. The media does it and for good reason.
We want to make the A to Z all inclusive and not drive off the majority because they don't know what they'll find on sites. Sure they can always leave, but what in the world could be wrong with providing an advance warning?
Sure, there may be certain religious and political sites that some my find "offensive" but for those who supposedly deem themselves as "open-minded" how easily offended would you be by those if you ran across them.
We're just trying to deal with the greater good for all just as Hollywood does.
Lee
I believe A to Z should do whatever A to Z wants. If *I* found the rules offensive, I wouldn't be here, no matter how large the blog hop is. No blogger is forced to participate in A to Z.
I generally try to avoid that content. I don't want little kids to be learning inappropriate things because of me.
Love the explanation, Nicole! Nicely done! :)
That was an excellent explanation. Thank you!
I'm doing what I did last year, putting a bolded warning/notice on any posts that might have some swearing, adult language, or a type of humor that offends certain people. Overall, there's barely any of that in the posts I'm going to do for this year's challenge, but I think it's fair to give a heads-up to anyone who's squeamish about certain language.
Points well made, Nicole.
Okay, no adult content on my site. Mine's written by a famous and oh so lovable dog who I know you adore. Yes indeed, Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar! And of course a series of magical creatures called the "wee folks". Sometimes they even let me write on my site. And that's definitely not in the way of adult content. If it was, there would be a warning beforehand. If I always wrote adult content, I would change my setting accordingly.
So "A" is for Adult Content.
Those of you involved, enjoy. I shall, as per usual, share your site to the various social networks.
Be well, Nicole and all the rest of you fine folks.
Gary :)
Well expressed! Thanks for the clarification.
I frequently drop the F-bomb, which to my mind makes me PG-13. But does that mean I need the (AC) category? I'm not graphic, just cuss-ish. And for the month of April in particular, I likely won't be as cuss-ish as I usually am. But I don't wand to get kicked out because I had an inaccurate understanding of what makes a post (AC). I guess my titles will includes some sort of F-bomb scale, which is actually kind of funny, so I don't mind going to this trouble. But will this disclaimer keep me safe from getting the boot?
Please understand, I have zero problem following the rules, and I'm not complaining about the rules in the least. I merely wish to understand them as they apply to my blog posts, so as not to offend anyone's delicate sensitivities. And also not to get yelled at.
That was a lie just then. I clearly am quite unconcerned with offending people, as it's been proven time and again that I'm an anti-social jerk-face. Mostly I just don't want to get yelled at at for breaking the rules.
I'm in the same boat as Andi-Roo...not graphic but cuss-ish (which I also plan to tone down for the month of April). Is a disclaimer for posts with swearing enough?
PG-13. The most "sexually oriented" post on my blog was "written by" a young teen fictional character. If it were a video game, it would be T for teen.
There should be such a rating system for printed words, perhaps. But what would one do with "The Catcher in the Rye" ?
I was one of the ones who kvetched about this a couple years ago. I took last year off, but back this year and signed up with the AC because I use the f-bomb here and there. Out of curiosity, I checked out a couple of other AC listed signups, and now I'm concerned that people will automatically think I have a lot of sexual content, because that's what the majority of AC blogs are. I'm curious to see how my numbers do this year in comparison to past years. The experiment begins.
Post a Comment