Think of the Children

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"Think of the Children" is a phrase used in fandom (and outside fandom) as shorthand for morality and self-censorship.

An Early Variation, and the Creation of Age Statements

an early fanwork (and debate) that riffed on this concept: it is a parody of art in Delta Triad (the original art is here) The parody from Menagerie reads: "Met, how could you? What about the cancer victims? What about the children under 21? What about the horses?, Met? Some of them are only 2 years old! This is disgusting! Dirty! Why, if God meant for us to have sex, we'd have been born naked! I bet Lestwe Fizz is behind this... Mary Sou."

Some 1977 fan discourse took place in the pages of the zine, Menagerie, other zines, personal letters, and at the convention, SeKWester*Con, Too.

These vigorous discussions were what made fans created the first age statements.

See more at Open Letter by Mary Lou Regarding Explicit Fanworks and The SekWester*Con Porn Debate.

Fan Use of the Phrase "Think of the Children"

1994

Perhaps this misinterpretation is the fault of us slash fans who are working within certain well-trodden parameters: when someone makes the argument of "but what about the children?" (as they all too frequently do), we point out that we don't give, sell or show slash to children (that's why there's the 'age statement required' at the front of most zines); we point out that slash is about men being involved with men, not paedophilia; we point out that slash is for grown ups only.

[...]

...if someone is so concerned about slash because of "The Children", then why are they not campaigning against the depictions of murder, rape and other immorality? Why is it *only* slash for which they reserve this particular argument?

[...]

The existence of slash no more enforces children's exposure to it than does the existence of mature fiction, scary movies and boring political chat shows. Not only is the argument spurious in my opinion, the core of it is that again, it's not solely an objection to slash, it is a desire to ban the genre.

2001

Finding stories about themselves posted on the net where anyone can access them would make most people uncomfortable. If those stories portray them in an unfavorable light, or have them in compromising situations, they'd most likely be hurt and offended. And what happens if their families find these stories? Their children? The potential confusion and pain these fics can cause should be enough to deter anyone from writing actor fic.

2007

I have never been a big fan of fanaticism, and I think it's ludicrous to put forth the information that Dumbledore was envisioned as being gay. First, it has no relevance to the story; second, there are 9-year-old children that read these books and don't need to know that information at such a young age because it has no bearing on their outlook of society; and third, there seems to be an overly arrogant aspect to announcing such a thing just to improve sales.

2014

I know that when we went online in the 1990s few of us had any idea that fans would be publicly posting their porn fanfic to open access websites (no. stop. think of the children!), displaying their explicit art where anyone could see (blush), and tweeting their love of RPS and knotting fic (OMGWTFBB!). By those standards, we have all breached the original fannish social contract of keeping fandom a "safe space" simply by interacting with one another in public and online. And I suspect that 20 years down the road, we will again struggle to recognize "fandom" as it continues to be reshaped by technology.

We could totally write fic about that, Lindsay. This corrupt, dystopian AU from which the author hails? Has its terrible roots in the Great Dungeons and Dragons Wars of ’84. One fanficcing Dungeon Master wrote a crossover slash AU with the Star Trek mirrorverse, and the damage was done: two worlds, not just one, and in the alternate world, Spock and Kirk were getting it on. This sort of tragedy is what can happen when we fail to Think Of The Children.

2015

Back then, on the 90s internet, it was normal to shun the fuck out of anybody underage, either because they were annoying or for ~think of the children~ reasons. I’m grateful that not everyone did. A lot of people in fandom were still willing to engage me in critical discussions and listen to what I had to say, even though I was very public about being 13.

2016

I’ve been in fandom for a decade and a half. When people start getting upset at “omg pedophilia, think of the children!” the fics they are usually objecting to aren’t actually pedophilia. Usually, it is teenagers having sex, especially queer sex. And people don’t like that, and use pedophilia as an excuse to shame people for writing/reading sex they don’t like.

Basically, this very conservative “family values” group hated porn, and they hated queer stuff even more, and used “but think of the children, it’s pedophilia!” to pressure LJ to get rid of huge swathes of things they didn’t like. And one time taking down the worst of it wasn’t good enough for them. No, this was step one on a moral crusade. If you acceded to their demands, all that did was whet their appetite, and soon they would be back with a new list of demands. This is why the 2007 strikethrough was not an isolated event, but rather one of a series of events, nor was LJ the only website thus targeted.

Molesting and abusing children is literally pedophilia. Grooming children for molestation and abuse is literally pedophilia. Viewing and disseminating actual child porn is literally pedophilia.

Teenage shippy fanfiction is not literally pedophilia. It’s not even figuratively pedophilia, and I don’t buy for one split second that any of the people trying to derail this post with ~but think of the children~ actually believe that the entire Harry Potter fandom is a malicious network of predators. It is so, so incredibly belittling of CSA survivors to equate their actual real-world suffering with the benign hobbies of fucking Katniss/Peeta shippers. It is so, so cynical and disrespectful to use real live vulnerable children as a weapon in your goddamn ship wars.

Pedophilia is not a joke. It’s not an accusation to sling at anyone who pisses you off on the internet.

2017

WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN? Aka, want things censored but phrasing it in a way that the people who refuse to be censored or promote self-censorship are the bad guys and deflecting the issue onto others who supposedly need your protection. Sit the fuck down, shut the fuck up, and focus on self-reflection rather than censorship, please, motherfucker.

2021

It’s vitally important to have a real support network that can’t be ripped away by social media wank.

The next thing we can all do is publicly stand up for what we believe in and not cave to pressure just because someone yelled “think of the children”.

I suspect that a lot of this comes from an influx of people who have grown up excessively sheltered by society, helicopter parenting, all of that. Cries of “someone think of the children” and “teachers can’t give failing grades” and “no my child is perfect”. They’re coming in from an entire world that has been “curated and sanitized and stripped of most of its controversy” because that’s what sells.

The Phrase Used Humorously

In 2008, a fan encouraged others to document their fan history so that younger fans and fans from the future could be taught well:

But, seriously, stop by Fanlore and add your lore in. Up until last week I hadn't done anything but fix egregious spelling and punctuation errors on Wikipedia, and now I'm creating my very own brand new pages! It's addictive, but 100% organic, I swear.

ETA: ALSO, the entry for alt.tv.x-files is really naked. Think of the children!