Should children be allowed into the Furry Fandom?

[Bababooey]

I'm curious about what you people think. I know there are a lot of problems regarding predators and such. There's so much adult content in this fandom that I don't know how children can avoid it. My first experience with furries online were bad. I was 14 and both were trying to drag me into the sexual stuff. One catfished me into thinking they were the same age and gender that I was.

I'm concerned about safety. There are so many furry spaces that don't have a clear line between sfw and nsfw. There isn't a single furry I've asked about this that didn't say they were groomed/creeped on as a young teen.

So what do you think?

Edit: As much as it sounds like I think they shouldn't, I'm on the fence, really.

 

[Punji]

The internet can be a dangerous place, there's no denying that. People can use the fandom for nefarious purposes, but they don't outweigh the good it can offer, in my opinion.

 

[Dinocanid]

That's a horrible experience to have, but it's by no means universal. Asking if kids should be allowed in the furry fandom is like asking if kids be should be allowed to play video games imo. The community is not one or the other, there's room for both and it caters to both.

By saying the fandom should only be for adults, you're:
1. Ignoring the plethora childrens furry characters and content (yes, even ferals count. Warrior cats was a root cause yall)
2. Pushing the stereotype that being a furry is a sexual fetish, which it is not

 

[Water Draco]

There will be children that will find aspects of the fandom appealing to them but may well not understand that the visually appealing original characters that we as adults create are not like there favorite cartoon characters. It remains the responsibility of the parents/guardians to ensure that children engage in there hobbies and interests in a safe manner.

When it comes to the internet for anything children should always be supervised by a parent or guardian at all times. A child left to there own devices on the internet is the same as leaving a child to play in the middle of a 6 lane freeway during rush hour.

Most meets and cons have age restrictions and those that do allow children usually require a parent or guardian to accompany them at all times and set limits on where they can go and at what times.
Then there are the venues which are typically adult environments where there is adult language and the consumption of alcohol. There may also be licensing restrictions for the venue and or the event itself.

If I had children myself and they expressed an interest in the fandom I would be supportive but I would do everything that I could to ensure that they have an enjoyable safe supervised interaction. (While I quietly have a nervous breakdown in the background with the challenges parents have with trying to prepare there children with the life skills that they will need as adults)

 

[LameFox]

"the furry fandom" in general doesn't really sound like something they can realistically be denied entry to. Personally as I remember being a minor and how prevalent it was to simply lie about our ages when needs be, I'm inclined to think it's better to prepare them for what they'll inevitably encounter on the internet than try in vain to keep them out of things where it's not legally necessary.

 

[Eli_the_Wolf23]

I came into the fandom when I was 10 in 2012

 

[AliceTalistar]

I don't believe it is a good idea to have minors in a place where there is about 75/25 porn to not. Its so incredibly easy to just lie about your age, and get shown two dudes fucking in a fursuit. Its not that I don't believe in exposing minors to pornography before they are of age.....oh wait, maybe I do. Another thing I don't want is something ive seen too often, a group of people invite a group of their friends to a furry meet, and this 16 year old shows up, they had lied and said they were 21, and had slipped through the cracks. Some of these people have sent nudes, rped with erotically, etc. and not realized it. If it gets out, its on the adults, not the kids. If the furry fandom didn't have SO MUCH PORN associated with it, then sure, it would be okay, but at this point, its just a bunch of horny 12 year olds trying to get a taste of sex.

 

[LameFox]

I don't believe it is a good idea to have minors in a place where there is about 75/25 porn to not. Its so incredibly easy to just lie about your age, and get shown two dudes fucking in a fursuit.

Trouble is if you can't effectively keep them from accessing the 18+ part of a site, how do you keep them from accessing the whole thing?

 

[Water Draco]

Trouble is if you can't effectively keep them from accessing the 18+ part of a site, how do you keep them from accessing the whole thing?

That's on the parents/guardians for allowing children on the internet without supervision.

 

[AliceTalistar]

Im mainly worried about the adults who get in legal trouble because they dont know that the kid is...well, a kid. I mean, nobody id checks every single roleplay.

 

[Deleted member 115426]

That's on the parents/guardians for allowing children on the internet without supervision.

I mean. We all say that. But have you ever thought about the logistics of that? We live in a digital world. Unless you are literally standing by your kid all day, you can't stop them. People have jobs. Kids have school. They have plenty of time away from their parents where they can break the rules.

 

[_Ivory_]

NO. JUST, NO.

 

[TyraWadman]

Realistically I know there is no way to police this, and even if my baby bro were to come across this, I would trust him enough to know better than get obsessed with or go crazy with porn/fetishes here.
BUT
I SURE AS HELL DON'T TRUST ANY OF THE OTHER KIDS
JUST THE OTHER WEEK HE WAS TELLING ME HIS OTHER FRIEND SUCKS ON A PACIFIER AND HE ALREADY DOESNT GET MONITORED ENOUGH ONLINE SO I'm constantly worried he's a babyfur in the making or if he's just a kid that needs a few extra years with his pacifier or that his parents are just dumb! He's 9-10 and he's always still playing fortnite at 11pm. When I hear his parents tell him to turn it off and take a break he objects, mic gets muted, and he ends up playing for the rest of the night. There are plenty of other reasons as to why I'd think this based on their 'larping' they do while playing fortnite. My bro doesn't know how it can be concerning, but I do.

It doesn't help that there was already an incident where a couple of older kids (also furry) decided to manipulate a bunch of 9 year olds and tell them inappropriate things and start moaning into the mic. I was glad I caught him when I did. Whether or not the other kids keep in touch with him, I wouldn't know.

My older bro (by one year) is something I wouldn't even touch with a stick because I have seen some of the shit he saved onto the computer when we were young, so I can only imagine what he's into.

Spoiler

One day I accidentally saved a word document without naming it. I clicked on the untitled file and it showed a picture of a gun on a single page. I should have just closed it, but noticed there were over 100 pages in that document. I just scroll down close to the end to see and ANIME FUTA PORN EVERYWHERE!!! (Not discriminating, just shocking when it's the first time you've ever seen it at age 12 or so).

There was also a time where I wanted to try something with moms tracing paper. I asked for the book and he got really defensive over it and refused to even let me open it to take one page. Later on it's discovered that he's traced over women in magazines but used his artistic mind to outline where the nipples and vag would be. Of course, I'm the 'only artist' in the house so I'm the first person they accuse. NOT the horny 13-14 yr old male that literally moans like a moose in his sleep.

These are some of the tamer things, but I'm not trying to make anyone nauseous.

 

[Water Draco]

Parental controls to limit when a child has the opportunity to access online content have improved greatly. So switching off access when they can not be supervised can be achieved.

 

[TyraWadman]

Parental controls to limit when a child has the opportunity to access online content have improved greatly. So switching off access when they can not be supervised can be achieved.

If there's one thing I learned about watching my baby bro grow up, it's that no matter how hard you try and shelter/look out for them, there's always gonna be that one trashy family/set of kids in their grade that introduces them to it.
Cue a seven year old girl shouting 'smoke weed everyday !' like its cool.

 

[Deleted member 115426]

Parental controls to limit when a child has the opportunity to access online content have improved greatly. So switching off access when they can not be supervised can be achieved.

Someone doesn't understand the concept of having friends who are bad influences.

If there's one thing I learned about watching my baby bro grow up, it's that no matter how hard you try and shelter/look out for them, there's always gonna be that one trashy family/set of kids in their grade that introduces them to it.
Cue a seven year old girl shouting 'smoke weed everyday !' like its cool.

Oh my god I just had flashbacks to when my sister was growing up. She turned into a monster because of her friends.

 

[Water Draco]

Someone doesn't understand the concept of having friends who are bad influences.

They existed but then I saw through them and ditched them. An individual that tries to influence others to do wrong is causing harm and therefore not a friend.

Just because some parents/guardians may not provide the best example that others should give up on trying to do the best they can to prepare there children for the world.

With the fandom parents/guardians must have an informed understanding that it is an environment where adults interact and that not all situations will be suitable for participation of there children.

As for my interaction online unless I know who I am in contact with in person, I treat all conversations as if it is in a general public space.

 

[Firuthi Dragovic]

Can't police every interaction and can't assume everyone's parents know what their kids are doing.

Officially, I'm wary of letting anyone below 18 into the fandom. Unofficially? I know there's very little indeed I can do to stop them.

"Don't tell them about it unless you're confronted with someone who knows it" is about the best I can phrase it. Even then, though... there's only so much you can tell someone, and there are limits to that approach.

 

[Tendo64]

I feel like kids should be allowed in the fandom as long as they're thirteen or older if going on the internet with it beyond YouTube--but that's common practice for minors online in general.

But contrary to what a lot of people are saying, there are plenty of SFW furry spaces, the people here just don't use them and thus don't know about them. Chicken Smoothie, for one, is entirely PG-13 and has plenty of furries on there. they don't run into NSFW because NSFW isn't allowed. Art Fight is another example. Websites not centered around furry content also tend to be more tame but also can still be risky.

Now... sites centered around furry content, such as Fur Affinity? Not really tbh. NSFW content is unavoidable on the main site and I've had multiple unpleasant encounters. I honestly think the site should be 18+, though I also don't because the forums would likely follow suit and I'd be kicked.

Honestly, any site that allows pornographic content should be 18+, really. once you allow it on your site, it will automatically become the main attraction, which is why I see at least one incorrectly filtered piece of art every time I visit FA's website.

 

[Jaredthefox92]

My personal opinion: No, they can like anthro characters of course, but they should stay away from the degeneracy and the yiffing.

 

[JustAlex1997]

There ultimately isn't anything that can be done outside of themselves and whoever looks after them. There's no application you have to fill to join a fandom, so there'll always be kids who are into things with aspects that aren't appropriate for them. Maybe they shouldn't be here. However, I wouldn't want to see them chased away either.

I was technically preyed on by someone in the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom when I was underage, so these things are unavoidable online. Kids should be made aware of these things and how to say no.

 

[Rayd]

no.

 

[FluffyShutterbug]

That's a horrible experience to have, but it's by no means universal. Asking if kids should be allowed in the furry fandom is like asking if kids be should be allowed to play video games imo. The community is not one or the other, there's room for both and it caters to both.

By saying the fandom should only be for adults, you're:
1. Ignoring the plethora childrens furry characters and content (yes, even ferals count. Warrior cats was a root cause yall)
2. Pushing the stereotype that being a furry is a sexual fetish, which it is not

I have the exact same opinion here. There's a TON of SFW stuff to do in the fandom, and I really don't like the idea of people saying "Because they *might* encounter adult stuff, age-gate the SFW stuff too!".
Because the fandom is plenty SFW too, due to all of the perfectly benign media starring anthro characters directed at children. Like Arthur or Star Fox or Animal Crossing or Spyro the Dragon. Minors aren't allowed to make a hobby around those kinds of media just because there are adults who do adult things in the same collective? I don't think it's really fair to stop them from doing the things that they're legally allowed to do.
And by saying that the fandom is 18+, it reinforces stereotypes displayed in that famous CSI episode. I actually quite love the NSFW side of the fandom, much more than the SFW side, but it does do our fandom a major disservice to say it's exclusively an adult thing for adults. I don't really mind the stereotypes all that much, since I don't care about others' opinions, but it's still not truthful to say that the fandom is manifestly 18+. I just don't want people falling prey to misinformation.
And I know that it's hard to police what kids do on the internet, but really, if you can't trust your kid to be responsible on the internet in the first place, don't give them access to Chrome. I know that we live in a digital world, but people really have to start treating the internet like it's the real world instead of some safer facsimile of it.
Anyway, if you're a parent reading this and you still don't want your kid to join the fandom until they move out, fine. You're the parent and it's your rules. But I don't like the idea of people within the fandom going "No, you can't join at all until you're 18!". It seems a little... Overreact-y. But, that's just my opinion. After all, I didn't join until I was 20 years old.

 

[AliceTalistar]

Just because some places are sfw, does not mean shit. The majority of places I've seen on discord, on furafinity, on reddit, etc, have been porn and fetishes galore. The argument of 'Its the parents duty' doesn't hold any water, because parents are getting lazier and lazier. Hell, I know some people who give their three year old their phone, just to shut them up. Its partly on the parents, but its also on the other furries to tell them that no, we wont suck your dick until you're at least of age, MR edgy 15 year old who owns a porn server. That's why every server I am in does age verification. We had a minor who was 14, and was sending nudes for a year before someone found out. That's called child pornography, and if someone would have taken advantage of that, all 46 of the other members of the server would have probably been charged due to one minor trying to get his rocks off. Im glad that more and more places are starting to crack down on this stuff, because its not fuckin legal. Otherwise, discord wouldn't be deleting accounts of people who are underaged. Im sick and tired of these dumbass kids coming up to me and asking to 'Erp? owo'. If yall wanna have places with minors, go right ahead. Take ALL of them. I don't want them anywhere around me.

 

[Dinocanid]

The argument of 'Its the parents duty' doesn't hold any water, because parents are getting lazier and lazier.

This is inaccurate; lazy parents have found ways to ignore their children since the dawn of time. Nothing's changed besides the technology they use to do so.

Parents should properly take care of their kids, that's true, and adults in the fandom should properly enforce that kids don't access nsfw content, that is also true. However, just because there are shitty people in the fandom doesn't mean that the whole fandom is shitty; in fact that's a hasty generalization in every meaning of said fallacy. Something can be fetishized but not be a fetish. To give you a list:

- Being LGBT is wrongly fetishized, it is not a fetish

- Some entertainment targeted at kids is fetishized, that is not their purpose (MLP and spyro porn is weird as hell, but it exists)

- Literally eating food is fetishized

You seem to be completely misunderstanding what allowing minors in the fandom actually means. It doesn't mean that you have to interact with minors if you don't want to, you're more than welcome to join and create adults-only spaces with the necessary vetting if you want to. In fact, you're encouraged to do so.

See a minor doing something they shouldn't? Be strict, let them know, ban them from the server. They are not commonly taught the true consequences for lying about their age to access NSFW roleplays/artwork/etc. Some kid joined a server I was in once saying that they did NSFW commissions. They were quickly told that could land someone in prison + the pedo list, and they were banned from the server. I'm not saying this just to you either, but everyone that thinks this is somehow not manageable. Take initiative, rather than throwing hands up and saying "Welp, being a furry is officially a kink. Children must be shielded from seeing any anthropomorphic media, it's too sexual. Sonic the hedgehog is banned."