A protest against Wattpad's new Content Guidelines
Recently, Wattpad has changed the Content Guidelines on sexual content, declaring that the age of consent is now 18. "Any sexual content between characters must abide by this age of consent and not be in violation of Canadian Law."
This is embarrassing for Wattpad. This is disrespectful to Wattpad users. This is a capitalist company conforming to conservative politics.
Wattpad is and has always been home to teenage writers. When I first learned of Wattpad at age 13, this orange app was everything to me. Wattpad is home to teenage writers and readers all around the world, with its many languages Wattpad is unique, and that is something to be proud of. Wattpad has given a creative voice to a generation and inspired young people to write and with multi media challenge our perceptions of the written word and literature. That is not nothing.
But the thing is, teenagers write stories about teenagers. Teenagers write sexual content that includes teenagers. Teenagers have sex in real life with other teenagers. To declare any of that illegal only has negative consequences.
Wattpad declares they want to create a safe space. They want to protect the community. If they really wanted to do that, then they wouldn't have these restrictions on WRITTEN, FICTIONAL sexual content.
Things that would make this a safer space and create and protect our community of global writers:
- quality sex education
- quality sex education in all languages used on Wattpad
NOW we are in a situation where WRITTEN FICTIONAL depiction of sex between fictional characters under 18 is not allowed. "Illegal sex acts" aren't allowed either. Should we thank Wattpad for clarifying that they mean "according to Canadian law"? Or should we wait with the thanking until they change it to local laws, or LGBT+ stories will be illegal as well?
