Should EPISODE be 15+ instead?

Well, most of us do have a noble cause for supporting the idea, even if it might come across as though they don’t. And well, people are already writing mature stories anyway, some which 13 year olds shouldn’t be reading at all, so the suggestion is, in my opinion, necessary at this point.

Cheers,
R.

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I think you underestimate how many people out there do just want Episode to have mature stories for their own selfish gains, personally. There are a lot of people who write mature stories because they don’t care about the kids on here. We’re letting them win. They’re getting what they want if we change the age. We’re setting a bad precedent - even an app designed for 13+ audiences is now contemplating kicking off 13+ people because some of us can’t follow the rules. Why are the kids going to suffer because some of us in this community are selfish and don’t give a damn about children on here? I mean, why else would they write mature user stories knowing that it’s against the rules?

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I personally believe that episode shouldn’t be 15+. My reason being is that I started reading episode when I was 15 years and younger. I see some people commenting that being under the age of 15 makes the authors’ story ‘childish’ and ‘immature’ when actually, age doesn’t exactly determine maturity levels, unless it’s like 12 and under. However, I also see people of the ages 15 and above writing ‘childish’ stories. Does their age affect the level of maturity going into writing their stories? No! I’m not personally 15 or under. However, the modern generation today are exposed to inappropriate content in games and/or online than older generations. Determining kid’s maturity through their age is unreasonable. You aren’t ‘protecting’ your kids if you ban young kids from reading/writing on episode because of their age. It will just lead them to play probably more explicit games or move to another app like episode where there is no age restrictions. I do believe that stories that hold more mature content should be placed in a section where younger readers can continuing their reading and not accidentally press on the wrong story. Banning young kids from reading isn’t right. I know a few kids younger than me that play episode mainly for their own benefit (no not sexual benefit) but it’s because they have dyslexia and they are unable to read long paragraphs. The animation helps young kids to read better and have a firmer grasp on what’s going on, rather than them being confused by a huge book! Are we all just assuming kids under 15 are immature and aren’t ‘mentally ready’ for episode?! It’s absurd!

Half of episode’s readers could possibly be under the age of 15!

I have a lot more to say but I need to study for my exams. It’s also quite late for me, so if anything didn’t make sense, ask away! I just came across this topic and felt the need to express my opinion. Thank you for being open to others opinions and I’d like to read about what other people think!

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Hi, if you are interested in another forum I made, there should be a link somewhere about making sections for stories (13+, 15+ ect.). It’s nice to see that EPISODE has some good affects on kids, especially ones with dyslexia, but age does in fact have a huge impact on the level of immaturity a person currently possesses. If you’ve read some of my earlier posts and replies, you’d notice that I bring up teenage mindset a lot. I’ll basically sum it up for you in super straightforward wording, since I’m also tired and just woke up in the middle of the night.
10-13 year olds: I am an adult and no one can tell me otherwise!!! I am maturity!
14-15: Huh, this stuff is interesting.
16+: This stuff is dumb.

Although, it isn’t exactly like this, (I more so wrote it with comedic purposes in mind) it is something similar.

Now if you excuse me, I am realllly tired and can’t properly think.

Cheers,
R.

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Adults aren’t the only people who write mature content. I’m pretty certain younger ones contribute to it as well. I don’t think it should be left up to writers to change their content. It’s not going to happen.

People are going to write what they want to write. What they think will gain more publicity (sex, bad boys, gangs) Simply because the app promotes it.
We can fuss and argue to the episode team about it. I really don’t see them being in a rush to correct it because hey… We live in a world where sex is somehow incorporated in everything, even down to toothpaste commercials. :confused:
Episode themselves use an ad with a girl in a bikini jumping on a guy to try to attract people. (pedophiles included)
So, of course a public app inviting people of many ages, races, and backgrounds will always contain mature content.

The sections would help to separate the mature content from the rest. That way you’d have to search for the stuff instead of having it thrown slam in your face.
The fact that you have to search for a romance story on a 13+ that doesn’t include someone getting pregnant on the first chapter is really sad and pathetic. :woman_facepalming:t4:

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Personally it wouldn’t make a difference, or maybe the slightest, if they’re still younger than 13 and playing on the app, don’t you think they’d do the same for the 15 age limit?

Preach it girl!

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Freedom? It is for the safety for the reader, and it isn’t for selfish gain? How would you gain anything from it? Personally I think the age limit up to 15+ is stupid because everyone at one point in their lives will lie about their age, so no one would think twice about doing it on episode! Rebel children!

It’s funny the more technology evolves and the world stupid parents are trying to hide their children away from everything! Your children will rebel, also let’s take 13 reasons why, (I know this is off topic) adult parents wanted it to be taken down because of the explicit suicide scene and rape scene, which no denying was explicit, but it isn’t Netflix’s fault your child decided to watch it, and everyone watching it knew how explicit it was. 13 reasons why doesn’t glamorise suicide in anyway, it is showing the viewers how a number of things can trigger a number of things, the reason why this younger generation have more cases of mental conditions that any other generations, is because nobody is talking about it! You should be talking about it, you need to let the world know that this is real, it exist! And that you’ll do anything to stop it! The fact that adults are hiding it makes the younger generation think they two have to hide it! Also Hannah deserved to blame people for her suicide, did she ask to be raped? Did she ask to be bullied constantly? Sorry I went off topic, like off off off topic

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I wouldn’t necessarily call parents stupid for trying to protect their children from harmful content.
Children live under a guardian/parent until they turn 18. Living in someone’s house which you do not own; restrictions are put in place. Why? To protect and keep them from getting hurt or from getting exposed to things they’re not ready to handle.
Who would let a child watch a rape scene? That’s disturbing.
There’s a difference between defining what rape is and showing a graphic rape scene.
Responsible parents know what their child is mature enough to handle, that’s not up to anyone but them.
Would you voluntarily watch a rape scene? No.
Why would anyone expose a child to one?

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Okay I shouldn’t have said stupid parents, I wanted it to come across as they are hiding them from things that should be talked about. Did I say they should watch a rape scene? No I said that the rape scene and the suicide theme was explicit, giving reasons why children shouldn’t watch the show, also children nowadays watch shows with very explicit scenes in shows, it doesn’t mean they should flat out end the show.

Also as soon as the child leaves their parent’s home they are going to have their own restrictions, there is a thing called being over protective which in the long-run does nothing good for anyone.

It’s hard to understand when you don’t have a child of your own. A parent takes from their own mistakes in life to ensure their child does not make the same ones. Is it so bad that a parent wants to protect a child, their own flesh and blood, against horrible things so they don’t end up making the same mistakes? I remember being taught about sex, murder and rape when I was 4 years old, long story short, I grew up a messed up child. It’s one thing I hate my parents for. There are times when a child is mentally ready to handle certain types of topics. Another example coming from my life, I had told (during a panic attack) that I had tried to commit suicide on a number of occasions to my little brother (he was about 6 at the time). Next thing I know he’s casually bringing it up as if he’s merely talking about the weather.
“Yeah, I remember that, Res almost committed suicide once, anyway”
What the hell dude?!
But it wasn’t his fault, why? Because he didn’t have the mental capability to understand what death is.

And also, what you were saying about the whole ‘you know, parents were annoyed about this movie/whatever having explicit suicide scenes and all this horrible stuff inside but their at fault for wanting to protect their child’ thing is messed up. Parents would lay down their life for their child, in this instance, they are saving their child’s childhood and possibly their future. What’s so wrong with that?
I won’t be too harsh, because it actually sounds like you’re ranting more than anything, but I will say this. EPISODE is becoming 15+, both its content and its people are becoming 15+. What used to be an alright app/website is becoming a downright freakshow.

Cheers,
R.

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Sorry for the long reply wait, I was trying to find a way to word this. This is the best I’ve come up with.
People on EPISODE write mature stories because EPSODE itself does, they, in their ads, broadcast sex, teenage pregnancy (have no idea if I spelt that correctly) and, basically, pedophilia. Bad boys, teacher-student romance (which is classified as pedophilia) and underage sex, as well as actual sex, are all things that EPISODE portrays in their own stories. So if a mature writer looks at those ads and thinks ‘huh, I can write on this’, they’re basically being a victim of false advertising. “Oh, 13+? Let me look at EPISODE’s stories…yep, I can write about mature stuff on here.” It’s then, not their fault.

Cheers,
R.

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Interestingly, if we’re going into the technical definition of paedophilia, it’s an attraction to prepubescent children. Technically, none of the stories involve paedophilia because all of the students have at least hit puberty. I think there’s another word for someone who is an adult and is attracted to teenagers: ephebophilia if I remember correctly.

In terms of student-teacher relationships, I am very against them as I believe that the teacher is abusing his/her power. However, the issue with such relationships featured on Episode isn’t paedophilia and technically applies to a 30-year-old at university being taught by someone their own age (they’d have to change their professor to continue the relationship). It’s an issue of abuse of power and consent as opposed to the aforementioned issue.

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Maybe so, but that is just another form of pedophilia (I don’t want to use that term just in case it’s the incorrect term and I 'm too lazy to look it up), a subform. And there still are plenty of actual student teacher relationships that involve a high schooler and their teacher (which is illegal and people have been arrested for it) and sometimes during the odd flashback in some stories, there’s actual pedophilia being shown. But we’re not just talking about pedophilia in EPISODE’s stories, there’s drugs, abuse of alcohol, sex (some of which is either graphically depicted, or heavily incinuated) underage sex, promotion of illegal activities. All of which is 100% not 13+.

Cheers,
R.

I actually am beginning to agree, I just don’t want Episode to be a place for adults to write about their fetish stuff or just weird stuff.

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Lol hopefully not

Cheers,
R.

It’s actually not another form. Being attracted to prepubescent children is completely different to being attracted to teenagers. They’re both bad, but how can we even begin to combat issues if we just lump them together like that? We need to understand where they come from to truly make a difference.

Furthermore, in terms of all of those issues you mentioned, it’s actually a grey area as to whether or not they’re 13+. It’s much more about how they’re depicted as opposed to what themes they depict. I particularly singled out paedophilia because it’s a common misconception which can really make people underestimate or misunderstand the issue.

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Liking someone or having sexual feelings to those underage or a minor is a form of pedophilia, it doesn’t matter how old they are in the eyes of the law, if you are under 18 (or 21 in some countries/states) you are classified as a minor. And I’m not lumping them togethet, the only category where I would lump them all together, is that they (most of them) are bad and wrong and should never be practised or just ‘tried’. There are two types of writers who write mature content, those who know what they’re doing, and those who don’t. And if someone knows what they’re doing, they will make it a mature scene, for example if they’re writing rape, they won’t just have the character crying saying “Oh no I was raped!” They’ll show the scene, some will even go into detail about it. The other type who don’t know what they’re doing are either uneducated in the matter, underage, or just don’t care enough to properly research. There’s rarely any in between, and the couple that I’ve seen, all have poorly written stories and plot holes.

Either way, it’s a mature theme, no way around it, and have a lot of stuff inside a 10-13 year should be allowed to read or watch.

Cheers,
R.

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