801 Media forums are 18+ only? Why Now!?

[sun22]

Lore: can you cite a law that that hypothetical police officer would use in that "arrest" scenario you came up with? I'm sure there is probably a federal law that prohibits the sale of pornographic materials to minors. But one would have to define a given comic book as "porn" first. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it may depend on such factors as community attitudes. I don't know where you live (and don't want/need to know), but in my area this fairly wild (IMO) hypothetical arrest scenario is so unlikely (aka arresting a store clerk for selling some relatively mild 18+ BLU comic), it made me laugh, sorry. It's identical to arresting store clerks for selling R-rated movies to a minor. Maybe it's illegal, maybe it's not, I don't know, and as you cite no specific laws (which would say clearly whether R-rated movies can or shouldn't be sold without an ID). As R-rated movies are not considered "porn", some federal porn law we all agree should exist somewhere wouldn't apply. And even if there's an official prohibition on selling R-rated movies without ID, I'm not sure if this would automatically apply to such niche thing as 18+ rated manga. It may be one of those unclear / gray area situations. Of course, anything as explicit as Crimson Spell (which Kitty basically markets as "adult book" - just look at their logo / website) may indeed cause trouble in some relatively conservative parts of the country, as Kinziechan's story shows.

As of my personal opinion on this: yaoi / any manga rated 18+ shouldn't be sold without IDs and if this were indeed true, this would probably make the whole June's censorship policy useless, and they would stop censoring (hopefully). As unfortunately this is not going to change any time soon, my feeling is that June will continue to censor, to cater to this whole "wider distribution" (=potential purchases by minors) thing.

And there's 13+ rated DMP/June's "yaoi manga" (as stated on the cover)- it's called Gorgeous Carat Galaxy.

[Hiyoshimaru]

Maybe they should stick with the intended age group that the original Japanese book targeted also? Like some of June's 18+ books like Ludwig II was originally in a shojo magazine (aka, ASUKA) for 15-17 year old girls? And the Dear+ books licensed by June were for the same age-group of girls as well (its the sister magazine of the shojo magazine Wings after all), While obviously adult-only Boys' Love books like Sensitive Pornograph and Love Prism should be available to 18+ people with I.D.s, and Target should probably stop selling Love is Like a Hurricane by Tokiya Shimazaki so its not bought by un-suspecting minors.

[sun22]

Hiyoshimaru - it's a good suggestion, and I wholly agree re: restricting clearly adult-only comics to adults, but USA is no Japan, and most believe themselves to be more conservative here on average. "Community attitudes" vary from state to state, but in most (probably) states, the whole suggestion of gay intimate relationship "with illustrations" (even if it's a depiction of just a kiss) is enough to make it a at least 16+ and in some states even a 18+ book. June has to take this into account when coming up with ratings, and actually recently I noticed they really made their 16+ rating in most cases (not all) a rather bold one for this country (well, IMO, they made it more reasonably / common sense driven one, and hopefully this will fly with the "majority" here).
Most people here do not care what *they* think about this type of thing in Japan or Europe, or how they rate books over there.

[Hiyoshimaru]

It just goes to show you. The US isn't as good as its cracked up to be. LOL.

[Shroud]

Community standards can be tough. I used to live in Florida, and you can get arrested for saying even amild swear word in what would be considered a public place or even overheard by the public if a woman and/or a child is within possible hearing range. Seriously, a guy who was innertubing got swept along and said, "D*mn" in shock and when he got pulled out the water, he was arrested and charged because 10 year old and his mother was on the bank and could hear. Yet, it doesn't have to bleeped out on the TV. Go figure.

[Hiyoshimaru]

That law is... is... retarded. :0

[sun22]

Community standards can be tough. I used to live in Florida, and you can get arrested for saying even amild swear word in what would be considered a public place or even overheard by the public if a woman and/or a child is within possible hearing range. Seriously, a guy who was innertubing got swept along and said, "D*mn" in shock and when he got pulled out the water, he was arrested and charged because 10 year old and his mother was on the bank and could hear. Yet, it doesn't have to bleeped out on the TV. Go figure.

Wow, if they decide to do it in New York, they will have to arrest most of New York City... And state budget being what it is, this won't happen. And with Florida state budget being what it is right now, they probably got mostly cured from this "arrest-fever" there too....at least, let's hope so.