sharing smut (written, anonymous) as a minor (17)

[name_pending]

I'm 17, turning 18 soon and I write explicit pornographic fanfiction on ao3. (Obviously anonymously - i don't share any actual information about myself. The fic itself is also more focused on kink then sex, and most of the things in it would be flat out impossible IRL.)

I feel bad that there may be adults reading and sexually enjoying my work without knowing it was made by a minor, who would be upset if they knew. At the same time I turn 18 in only a few months, and I don't see the point in arbitrarily waiting for that one specific milestone.

But I also don't want to violate the boundaries of adults who don't want to interact with minors in a sexual context (even unknowingly and indirectly)... and I DEFINITELY don't want to seek out adults who want to interact with minors in a sexual context.

(I have some friends my age but none of them are into the specific kinks I'm writing.)

What do I do?

[char]

Hi name_pending! Just to be clear, when you said you write explicit pornographic fanfiction on AO3, did you mean you've also uploaded them on the site before?

[Anya]

Hey name_pending,

Since it does look like you've answered my colleagues question in your first post I did want to jump in here quickly and see if I can do anything to help you with this situation you're in.

So first I just want to say that, you're right in thinking that this stuff is tricky. It's tricky in terms of making sure that you're abiding by a platforms terms of service and your local laws, which in this case, you maybe both are and are not. In AO3s community guidelines, it doesn't actually say anything specific about prohibiting any content simply because it was posted by a minor, so local government would be the main thing to make sure you're abiding by. I know that in Canada it is against the law in most cases for minors to post or share any "pornographic content," and whether erotica or smut is considered "pornographic content" is sometimes that unfortunately tends to be up to individual counties or judges. So to be on the safe side, I would recommend that you do not post anything as a minor that could in some cases be deemed "pornographic" so as to ensure your safety. Its totally okay if you did not know this information, and I don't want you to feel like anyone holds any judgement toward you for this, but what we care about is your safety and security, so this would be our recommendation based on the murkiness of these laws.

On the more personal side of this, you mentioned feeling bad or uneasy that adults could be reading your smut not knowing it was written by a minor, and this feeling makes a lot of sense. It's completely understandable to feel uncomfortable about this. I think that if you were writing about fictional adults, and adults were reading that, it might help put your mind at ease to know those people are pretty much always expecting that writing like this has an adult author behind it. If you're writing about fictional teens or minors like yourself, and are worried about adults reading it, this is also something we can talk about but I think is a bit of a different and delicate conversation.

I want to make sure you know that you've done nothing wrong by writing to us here and asking for insight. I just think it's best that you wait to publish anything else until you're 18. So of course writing it for yourself is completely fine, but in terms of abiding by these standards, let's play it safe and do what we know is broadly okay. How does that sound to you?