(LRT) I agree with this and other threads I've retweeted about this whole thing.

Like, look -- personally for me this whole issue boils down to harm done to actual children. Writing and drawing NSFW of anime characters who are underage harms no child because they're not real.

That's a simple distinction. I would also argue that simply shipping live action characters played by minors or writing fic about those characters doesn't cause harm because it's about the characters. It doesn't impact the actors. From discussing this with other shippers,

the actors themselves aren't the point -- the characters are -- and while I understand why people can be uncomfortable with that I don't believe words on paper about fictional characters is a harmful act. Nor is just shipping them.

Art is something different.

I do not think it's okay to create NSFW art that clearly resembles the real child actor because there's actual harm done there that isn't done with fic or fanworks of underage anime characters. Child actors have spoken up previously about knowing they were sexualized as children

and the negative impact that had on them. One can read fic and not connect it to the child actor who played the character but that same disconnect can't happen when we're talking about a piece of art that looks just like the child, that they can see & recognize themselves in

I think if people want to create NSFW of these characters, it shouldn't look like the actor. Most of the time fanartists are good at doing this -- taking Harry Potter for example, I've seen plenty of NSFW art of the characters but can't recall ever seeing any where

I looked at it and thought it looked indistinguishable from DanRad or whoever. Care should be taken to not have fanart look like the real child playing the character.

I also think it's inappropriate to make sexual remarks about child actors, their bodies, ESPECIALLY to them

Or in the comments under photos of them. There have been cases of adults sexually harassing child actors for years and it's disgusting and inappropriate. It's a situation where I think people lose sight of the line between fiction & reality & what appropriate boundaries are

And I think that people who cross those boundaries should be called out for it. Sexualizing real children and harassing them shouldn't be seen as acceptable behavior.

...all of this said, I absolutely do not agree with the way the user who called verri out went about doing that. I don't actually think a callout was warranted in her case. I think that was something a civil conversation would have been better suited for.

I thought the call out for verri was sensationalist. I thought it took her views in the worst faith possible by providing 1 out of context screenshot from a much longer thread. I think calling verri a real pedophile was a jump and the kind of shit I expect to see from antis.

I read verri's thread and I disagree with a lot of it, particularly the parts about NSFW fanart, but I think people having a knee jerk "burn the pedo" reaction to the ONE screenshot the person calling her out shared is absolutely reactionary and unfair to verri

who also made good points in that thread, though some were worded badly, but of course most people haven't read it because OP of the callout only shared one tweet from it to get the maximum negative reaction.

I also find it incredibly strange that it's verri who got called out in all this when she made a thread trying to suss out her thoughts on this issue much like I'm doing with this thread and meanwhile the user who actually sexualized a real child

and drew NSFW of that child that looked identical to them was only an afterthought mentioned far down in the comments of the callout over verri. IDK who the OP of the callout is but those priorities are bizarre to me and again, I do not think the callout post about verri

should've been made when she was very clearly trying to work out her thoughts and was open to having a conversation about it and not only listening to the views of others but agreeing with them in the comments. Putting her on public blast as a first resort was not okay imo.

I also think people dogpiling her is not okay. I think big discourse accounts with thousands of followers sharing that callout without checking into it first is not okay. I think the fact that there are now pro shippers afraid of sharing the same opinions as I've shared

and reblogged because they're terrified that other pro shippers will also dogpile onto them is not okay and frankly one thing I do agree with in verri's thread is that some of you ARE acting like fancops in this. We're supposed to be better than being as reactionary as them

and to be open to discussion rather than knee jerk assumptions and yelling and the complete hysteria I've seen towards someone who wasn't even the one sexualizing the real child. I understand if people want to follow/block verri & I've personally blocked the other users involved

but no, I don't think she deserves the reaction people are having to her and I think singling her out when those other users actually did the thing she only wrote a thread about is not something I agree with at all.