Oh look, the guy from last night that never posts threads made Another one.

Anyway, I was just curious to know exactly how people in this Community defines the term 'mature'. I know we have the mature tag for stories involving sex, or gore, or sex and gore, but just because those themes are on the riskier or more adult side, does that necessarilly make the stories themselves more mature? I personally don't Think so, but I'm curious to hear what others Think about this.

Also, Before you post, please note that we're just looking to have a nice discussion here, and that there are no clear answers. We don't bash on people for not accepting our views of the World, that's how many wars started. I probably didn't need to write that down, but I did it anyway.

So yeah, let's hear it, what's your take on maturity.

(BTW, for anyone who knows, if there's a rule against posting many threads in a short span of time, please let me know in case I'm breaking some rules around here)

2114584 Graphic content that most wouldn't deem acceptable for younger viewers.

2114584
What would you like kids to have access to it?

If the answer is no, then you should censor it. As for the teen rating, that's up for them to decide. Most readers here I believe are over the age of twelve anyway.

2114584 For me, it just means graphic content.

2114584
I believe that some of the darker psychological themes should be made mature.

I see Maturity as, appropriately enough, a horseshoe.

Just imagine a horseshoe in your head. The further left you go the more childish themes and characters you'll come across. The further right you go the more adult themes and characters you'll come across. The most mature things are at the top, right in the center of the horseshoe. But if you'll go down either way, whether you become more childish or more adult, then you'll come across more immature things.

2114604

Clopfics aren't necessarily... psychologically dark, but I'd say they're graphic enough for a mature tag.

2114584

Any topic that might offend adults and you probably wouldn't want anyone under the age of consent seeing without express permission. Depictions of sexual acivities and graphic violence are the easiest to identify, but other definitly apply as well. My own story was marked mature long before I'd made up my mind about including sex because I knew I was going to spend time looking in to thoughts of bestiality, whether a relationship with a pony counts, and how my protagonist feels about everything.

2114584
Darker psychological themes bordering on plain horror, excessive violence, gore, content of sexual nature... all of those are reason to make a fic Mature rated.

As Flint Sparks said, if you don't think it'd be suitable for kids, it's probably Mature.

2114727
Well, to be honest I wasn't really thinking along the lines of "is this safe for kids or not". I'll make an, probably bad, example:

Should something like for instance "My Little Dashie" be considered more mature because it deals with heavier themes than a story which is mature only because it has more graphic content in it?

I probably should've just written that in my opening post instead to clarify what I meant....

2114584
Mature content has little if anything to do with the actual concept of maturity. It means that the fantasy portrayed in that work is of a graphic nature and should only be viewed by people with the maturity to handle it. The stories themselves usually aren't very mature. In fact, they're usually the direct opposite.

2114591
I generally hold off on the mature tag unless there's explicit sex and/or extreme violence. Descriptions of penetration, intestines spilling from an abdominal tear as the pony screams, etc. I equate it to PG-13 versus R/NC-17.

2114750 Oh, so you mean mature as in 'stuff people over 18 commonly deal with that children generally don't need to worry about'

2114750
Dashie deals with some "mature themes," but none of its content would necessarily be considered inappropriate for teens. I can't remember if there's profanity in it, but it's not much; there's no sexual content or violence of any kind. Without going back and looking at it, I'd say it'd be Teen, if not Everyone.

A story can deal with grownup issues and darker emotional content without being explicitly adult.

2114824
Well, it sounded a lot better in my head.

Mods, if you read this, feel free to shut this thread down, I clearly f*cked up here.

2114845 for what it's worth, I understand what you were saying. But yeh, the mature rating here is for sex/gore, pretty much.

2114852
I know, though I was curious, seeing as how a lot of stuff is labeled as mature even though it clearly has no mature themes, just explicity.

2114750
Don't underestimate kids. They can handle quite a lot more than most people in the Western world assume.

2114584 My story is tagged "Mature" expressly because of some of the darker concepts it involves, along with some of the many horrible things I'm going to put my characters through that doesn't involve grisly dismemberment and/or explicit sexual interaction. I might get away with labeling it "Teen/Gore", but, honestly, it just doesn't seem to fit, and labeling it "mature" just seems like a better catch-all for some of the things my characters are going to have to put up with.

2114584
Well, if readers were truly mature, they wouldn't read mature-rated stories, would they?

But in all seriousness, being graphic is what it takes to be rated mature, that's all it takes.

2114584 Ask yourself "Would I show this to a 6, 10 or 15 year old?"

2115472 Well when I was in PDHPE classes I would be the only one that doesn't burst of laughing at the sound of the word 'sex'.

Dear Celestia those guys were stupid.