The sanitization of adult content

SESTA/FOSTA, shadow-banning, deactivation…

It’s a huge topic of discussion that slowly but surely, adult content is being wiped clean on internet platforms, including the ability to monetize work.

The latest to hit this is Tumblr, with their platform-wide ban on all adult content as of 17th December. This has caused content creators to have to move their work on Tumblr to other platforms in order to save it. Despite this however, when being told by Tumblr they will have until the ban date to transfer their content, work is already being wiped prior to the ban date. One such case of this was with BDSM & sexuality educator Evie Lupine.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter will know, I posted out a heads up a few days ago, after I received an email that my Buy Me A Coffee account was being deactivated. The reason I was given was the platform accepts no creators of adult content and as a result, I was being deactivated for quote “promoting prohibited content”.

When I looked at the official list of prohibited content, adult content is sandwiched in between the illegal selling of military weapons and the uses of cryptocurrencies. Following that was using the platform for terrorism and above was the use of paraphernalia to conceal drugs. The terms are here if you wish to reader further. Upon checking, these terms were last updated 4 months ago. I was never made aware of this for as long as I have been on the platform so I could move on somewhere else.

What bothers me about this is how adult content creators who are law abiding peoples, are being wiped off platforms when dubious characters are being policed very little to not at all. As we’ve seen with Tumblr, it became the centre of controversy for illegal content involving minors, and predatory individuals facilitating and using this to target people was policed abysmally.

They have been allowed to thrive and Tumblr’s lack of proper policing has enabled putting minors at risk of predators and the facilitation of predatory behaviour on a widespread social platform.

Tumblr had a “safe mode” for adult content creators where minors and/or anyone not wanting to see 18+ content couldn’t see it. That’s fine. I have no issue with that at all. I have the same with Patreon and have marked my site here on WordPress as “Mature” so it doesn’t show up in its general search engines.

With my site specifically being adult, I don’t want minors being able to access my content and try to minimise any chance of that as much as I possibly can. Anyone who is even remotely suspected as being under 18 is blocked.

This is my question. Why with those measures in place, are law-abiding adult content creators still being targeted and being shut out from promoting their work within their own circles? Why are adult, female ASMR artists who produce SFW content facing a crackdown by PayPal?

Also, why are content creators being shut out of more monetizing platforms? I understand “advertiser friendly” but sooner or later, we wouldn’t be able to make as much of a living from our work.

On top of that, sex workers and other content creators online being targeted by incels in the disgusting #ThotAudit. I could go on.

This is just my perspective here, but when adult content and sites make up nearly 1/3 of the internet’s traffic, wouldn’t it make more sense to facilitate the monetization and freedoms of adult content creators, whilst having the proper protections in place in to protect minors?

Apparently, adult human sexuality is something that needs to be sprayed with virtual Lysol, while in certain circles, a blind eye is turned on predators. You want to “think of the children”? Then nail and prosecute the people actually targeting the children!

Not the law-abiding, everyday adults who write about sex, between consenting adults, to be read only by other consenting adults!

All my love,

Violet xx

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*Picture – Pinterest