Omg! I can’t unsee it 
I’m glad episode doesn’t let this happen anymore as well. Let’s just leave some things to imagination lol.
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I think I know what story you’re talking about lmao… I can’t believe that was ever allowed 
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Since people use the argument that children read this app, then episode should portray consensual sex but there are a lot of stories that don’t do this and yet they’re still allowed. instead of eliminating it completely, I think there should be restrictions to prevent children from reading a mature story but I don’t see anything wrong with wanting mature stories as long as it’s consensual.
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This is just my opinion but, I don’t mind suggestive content online. Heck a lot of stories hint it! But, I babysit and an 8-YEAR OLD has seen me playing and wants to play. I sometimes have to watch her like a bat because I don’t want to risk having her see something that will make her grow up faster or be scarred for life. There is a big group of readers who are 12+ and it’s not good if we have Episodes that have sex scenes, even soft ones on the app.
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Episode doesn’t have a rule that means you can’t include sex. You can. As long as you do it right. Which is not hard. Think of PG rated TV shows and how they include it. It’s all about references to sex and in my opinion, it’s very easy to manipulate the regulations to include sex beyond what I think it appropriate for 13 year olds anyway…
On this note, if Episode doesn’t do it… I feel like they won’t because ummmm can you imagine how people might lose their minds if episode “encouraged” sex! Maybe I will 
Wow, I actually read something exactly like this yesterday. Except instead of calling it his D, he called it his “think”. I cried 
It was funny, but super gross 
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I think what confuses me is:
Were there not scenes in College-ish that do exactly what’s bolded here? I would have expected those scenes would be in violation of this guideline, but clearly it is not the case that “anything suggesting” a sexual encounter is forbidden. I would like to know where the line is because I don’t find it very intuitive. I’m not personally interested in writing or reading sex scenes (in fact I find much of what is on here quite off-putting), but, in theory, having more decisive parameters on what is and what isn’t allowed could make quality control easier. They’d have more specific rules they could provide to authors in violation of content guidelines, and then those authors wouldn’t be like, “Yeah, but this or that story has sex scenes and it was featured/on a shelf/has 5 million reads” because the rules would distinguish what is from what isn’t part of the verboten “anything suggesting” sex is taking place.
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Previously to College-ish, my understanding was always that kissing then fading to black was as much as you could do to depict sex. Now with College-ish, I’ve seen a lot of “touching” with hand overlays. Tbh, those scenes made my eyes go wide at first, but the more I think about it, the more I see how it’s acceptable as per Episode’s guidelines… because it’s not suggesting “sex” is occurring at that moment, it’s suggesting “foreplay” is happening. However, I will still use my fade to black rule of thumb anyway because the sensual touching with overlays makes me cringe
And I agree with this completely. I know for some of the guidelines, it’s hard to give a point blank definition for, but there’s got to be something a little more clear for this
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It’s not silly.
There are minors, reading episode stories and it’s wrong to expose them to that kind of stuff so Episode are being very considerate about their audience when it comes to this situation. Minors are very young & impressionable, they don’t need to see that.
But I do think Episode should not allow any minor to read a story with a lot of sex scenes even though things shouldn’t be based on sex all the time. There’s more to life than sex.
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There are some really good points people have made in the end. Honestly, if I’m reading a nice romance, I’d prefer not to see depictions of two or three 
people having intercourse. I think having cute animations that show two people are interested in each other or are in love (like those really sweet and romantic animations episode released on LL) is enough. There isn’t much need for graphic descriptions of sex and its one of those things we don’t need to add to a romance story. For example, despite sex being a natural thing everyone does, so is going to the bathroom and relieving your bladder, but you’re obviously not going to write about it because its unnecessary and gross. I’m not sure if that was a good example, but it literally was the first thing that popped up in my head. 
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I think that the whole topic of putting sex into stories is a tricky one.
The rule isn’t silly as it is protecting children on the app as it is intended for 13+. In theory, If the episode team suddenly decided that explicit details and graphic sex was allowed in stories, the rating would go up and they would lose their core demographic.
The different sections thing is a good idea but I don’t believe it will happen because a rating on the app store is done for the whole app rather than for specific sections so the app age limit would still go up and episode wouldn’t want that as it would damage their business.
Episode featured stories barely stick to their own guidelines when it comes to sex (Anybody want to be reminded of the In My Bed Drama?) so there is nothing we can really do about it. Just stick to soft stuff.
In my story I have a particular scene where you could choose to ‘spend the night’ with a character or just go to sleep. I worded it like that in my story so that the reader can imagine it however they like and that’s it’s not graphic and won’t violate the guidelines. The scene it’s self is just them kissing then it fades out to black with no mention of the word sex or any explicit details built in.
If it’s graphic, It shouldn’t be allowed in. Scenes that allude to the act without any mention of the word or vulgar details are fine in my opinion. They have these things in PG 13 movies so write it like that.
I think in some cases, stories that revolve heavily around sex are actually really boring lmao.
Sorry for the essay 
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lol, when the author exits out of the story, just like that.
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STAN guuurl
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Oh tru. Stories can mention sex but not to the extent of it being smut lol. Cause underage kids read it so it would be bad 
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I assume it comes from the law restriction in the country episode comes from.
In each country you have limites for what can or canot be seen by younger audience and because episode decided to be +13 app thay have to fallow this rules.
The qustion is why they decided sto still keep being kids app when most of the top stories are often having sex just not as descriptive. so now thay must have realized sex sels.
but it is on episode to decide whyt thay want to have on ap and what rules trhay want to fallow.
I do
You do what?
Ummm never mind
No. This is an app for 13 and up and they heavily market towards teens. Material here needs to stay PG 13.
While I sometimes think the review team has been acting a tad bit prudish with certain scenes lately (like not being able to describe the way a kiss feels and extending the definition of the phrase “sexual interaction” to any kiss or interaction between a romantically interested couple like flirting- stop clutching your pearls and take a few deep breaths, Gran), it’s important that they stay vigilant in making sure that stories are age appropriate and stay in the PG 13 realm. Anybody who’s been here for longer than two years can tell you about what happens to the TS when they don’t actively monitor story content. Basically, it becomes a poorly written porn fest and allows way too much room for predators to infiltrate this community and prey on young readers and authors. We don’t need that here.
If you want graphic sex scenes, there are other interactive storytelling apps whose target audience is adults that have sexual content behind a paywall. Episode targets teens, so they need to remain teen appropriate. And honestly, you can and should be able to enjoy a good romance story without having to read explicit sex scenes.
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I personally don’t think underage kids should be exposed to mature scenes on an app targeted at them. I think it’s a little bit selfish that older people come on this app and expect us to forget all about the target audience and pander to them. I also think it’s childish! Most mature adults don’t have a problem with reading stories without sex.
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