like i’m not joking. i’m like. just so angry i can’t articulate it right now but i’m so upset, especially with adults/older teenagers who egg children on in making jokes far beyond their age because they think it’s funny.

Not only that, but they look up their favorite shows and see porn of their favorite characters

^ This point is crucial. This is not as simply avoided as “don’t like don’t read/watch” disclaimers advise and there is not adequate safeguarding against children accessing sexually explicit material even so much as third-party websites that require a user to agree that they are over the age of 18.

~ * WHICH IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF PARENTS. * ~

Not J-Random-Person-On-Tumblr-or-Ao3-or-YouTube. The child’s parents.

And I am saying this as a) a parent involved in assorted fandoms with b) two children of various ages who are c) also involved in assorted age-appropriate fannish activities. We fan together. I critique and edit my eldest son’s Transformers/Loud House fanfic. I help my youngest son design some of his Pixel-stuff skins. We decided mutually which YouTubers they were allowed to watch. We play games together, read many of the same comics, buy each other Funko Pops and Nerf weapons, squee over many of the same fannish things – not all, but many, because I have grown up things that I’m interested in and they have not-grown-up-things that they’re interested in and there the twain does not meet. Because I’m their mother and it’s my responsibility to monitor what they get into and up to online as much as it’s my responsibility to make sure they don’t play in the middle of a four-way highway.

It is not the responsibility of random strangers on the internet to monitor your child’s online activities. It’s just not. And it’s not even remotely reasonable to expect them to do so.

Parental content filters are a thing. Use them. Don’t buy your children M-Rated video games and then clutch your pearls about it. Pay attention to what they’re reading, drawing, watching, and doing online. This is literally your job as a parent.

And also? Don’t act like someone else is doing something wrong by being an adult on the internet. Because they’re not and behaving like an adult in adult-oriented fandom spaces is only to be expected. 18+ Only warnings exist for a reason. M-Ratings exist for a reason. Do Not Interact If You’re A Minor warnings exist for a reason. And it’s not the fault of the adults who employ them properly if a minor chooses to ignore them. That child’s parents should be monitoring their activities and teaching them to respect those boundaries.

Yeah your first mistake was admitting you were a parent to a child who found things you didn’t approve of on the internet.

You are, you know, the parent. Be responsible for your child. The internet is not the village. We have no obligations and often no way of KNOWING. The internet cannot parent for you.