Strikethrough '07: Personal Thoughts

[kiaxet]

I figured it was my turn to comment on all the bannings that have been going on recently.

First of all, I think it's insane that it's gotten this far. We have my entire RP backed up, it's true, but I'm fearing for it anyway simply because quite a bit of RPs have fallen under the axe recently.

I headed to the Warriors for Innocene website and left them a nice comment:

I'm coming here from LiveJournal as well, and I have to say I'm worried. I understand your cause and support it thoroughly - children do need to be protected from the less savory members of society. To that end, however, parents need to teach their children internet safety as well.

Banning every potentially objectionable site doesn't help as well as one would hope, especially when many of these sites deal with fiction or are taken horribly out of context. For example, in the case of fanfiction, it is just that - fiction by the fans, for the fans. A piece of fanfiction in which a rape occurs is not supporting rape - in fact, depending on the context of the story, it may very well be condemning rape. The problem seems to be that (continuing with this example) every story dealing with rape, whether it supports or condemns the act, is being deleted simply for its subject matter, when the treatment of said subject is what should be considered.

In the same way, a fictional journal - a journal made for a role playing game, for example - should not be treated as though it is a journal for a real person. A journal for the fictional villain Voldemort will of course support killing and torture, because that is what Voldemort does as a fictional villain. That is not to say that the person playing this villain actually supports such things themselves - it simply means that they are playing the character well. Fictional journals should be marked fictional and left alone.

Also, in addition to subject matter, interests need to be kept in context as well. I have seen several cases of a journal being banned because they included "Death Note" in their interests. Death Note is a legitimate anime and manga series published by the company Viz. People listing Death Note in their interests are simply expressing their appreciation for this particular series, not a desire to kill and write about it. This interest, among many others, has been taken far out of context, meaning people have been banned for reasons that do not truly apply to them. This, I believe, needs to be fixed.

Thank you for hearing me out, and I hope you might consider what I have to say before more innocent journals are deleted simply for their subject matter, as opposed to their treatment of it.

I have absolutely no hope they'll listen to me, but at least it's a bit more...polite...than some of the other comments left on their site.

Also, quite a few people more eloquent than I have been covering this on their journals as well - additional information (as well as some snazzy banners) can be obtained there:

http://ataniell93.livejournal.com/
http://roaring.livejournal.com/70304.html
http://ladybrighid3333.livejournal.com/222207.html

And above all, be careful if you decide to go to WFI's website. It's entirely possible they can track which site you came from and which site you go to when you leave, so be especially careful and go to noncommittal websites in between. (My personal neutral point is Google, just because it's my homepage and it makes life simple for me.) Be careful, be polite, and above all stand strong.

We'll pull through this.