May 22, 2023 - FAQs and Clarifications for UP 2.7
8 hours ago
FAQs and Clarifications for UP 2.7
To begin, we want to start this announcement off with an apology on how this has been handled. It was scheduled to be posted at a time that not all staff were available to help moderate and were not able to provide adequate clarifications concerning what we look for in regards to "aging up" characters. Because of this, there was confusion and speculation that caused undue stress upon the community which should have been prevented sooner. This led to some users feeling they would be falsely accused of being something they are not and become a target of harassment. We do not tolerate harassment of our users. If you ever experience an issue with someone and need staff assistance, we encourage you to open a trouble ticket in here:
This is an ongoing learning experience for us on how to prepare to handle announcements like this. That doesn't fix what's happened and we know that, but we will continue to improve so that we can provide a better experience for the community in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
TL;DR
- The rule isn’t new and hasn’t changed.
- This does not affect SFW content.
- Enforcement is being expanded to include Pokémon and Digimon.
- Short characters are not being impacted.
- Minors involved in SFW or non-sexualized interests, such as vore and transformation, are allowed.
1. What does the rule say?
Content featuring minors is not allowed when the minor is in the presence of sexual activity, sexual objects, or nudity, though exceptions may be made for non-sexual depictions of birth and breastfeeding. Presence is defined as being in the same scene, such as sharing a comic panel, contiguous image, reference sheet, or specific section of a story where characters are engaging each other.
Minors may not have detailed bulges or outlines of normal or hyper genitalia, clothed or otherwise. Minors may not be fetishized. Minors younger than 13 may not be depicted as pregnant. Minors are defined as real or fictional humanoids with a childlike body or younger than 18 years old, and any adolescent animals or fantasy creatures.
2. When was this rule created?
The terminology of “childlike body and adolescent animals” is a clarification that went into effect on September 8th, 2015 (7+ years ago) to an already existing rule that was created on November 24th, 2010 (12+ years ago) that banned content featuring minors in sexual situations.
3. Why did this rule receive clarification in 2015?
While minors were banned from being in sexual content in 2010, users were still uploading children in sexual situations, saying that they were adults (e.g. 1000 year old vampire child) and therefore didn’t violate the rule as they were not minors.
At the time, Fur Affinity was owned by IMVU who had a firm stance against children presented sexually, and the rule was clarified by defining a minor as: “real or fictional humanoids with a childlike body or younger than 18 years old, and any adolescent animals.”
4. Why am I hearing about this now?
While this policy has had several small changes that were announced throughout the years, enforcement was never taken against the Pokémon or Digimon in sexual content that look like children or cubs although they violated the rules. After years of receiving user feedback via trouble tickets, we have decided to end this internal policy on July 1st, 2023.
5. What Pokémon and Digimon cannot be in sexual content without being aged up?
While we cannot present an exhaustive list of thousands of characters, common canonical inclusions would be “baby Pokémon” such as Pichu, Mime Jr., Riolu, and Smoochum, other Pokémon such as Cubchoo, Cubone, Torchic, Ralts, Eevee, and Gothita, and Digmon such as Agumon, Impmon, Gatomon, and Veemon as these characters have childlike proportions or look like adolescent humans or animals.
6. What does aged up mean?
We are not concerned with whether or not a character is emotionally mature, a certain level, or evolved. The physical proportions of the character would need to be altered. It is not enough to change the size of a character. Scaling a character up or down doesn’t change its proportions. Making an adult smaller doesn’t create a child and making a child bigger doesn’t create an adult. If the character has no difference from birth to elder, you will have to draw them non-canon for them to be acceptable in sexual situations.
7. How do you judge proportions?
Generally speaking, as characters age, their proportions change. For humanoid characters, we compare to the proportions of humans and for feral animals we look to their earth counterparts or similar for fictional species.
8. What about the size or size difference between characters?
Since size is not the same as proportions, size and size difference rarely has any weight in decisions we make, whether the character is macro, micro, or several feet in difference apart in relation to each other. Corgi, otters, ponies, and other short creatures, will not be affected based upon stature alone.
9. What about characters without larger reproductive features?
A common misconception is that we will remove content because a character has smaller genitalia or breasts. The size of genitalia and breasts have no impact on our decisions as they may not change with age.
10. What about “shortstack” and “chibi” characters in sexual content?
A shortstack character is one who is short in stature with larger than average features. Shortstack characters generally have adult proportions with short stature and would be allowed.
Chibi depicts short and cute characters with oversized heads. The chibi style is often used in media when characters are acting silly or out of character, and some of these circumstances may not be allowed if they appear too childish; however, in many situations the style of the character has a large head and small adult body and would be okay. Ultimately, body proportions are what we will be looking at when making a decision.
11. How do you make the decision as to what content is allowed?
When content is reported, a staff member will review it based upon the criteria that we have discussed in this journal. If a cut and dry decision cannot be made, it is reviewed by a group of senior staff members for a consensus. If the content is removed and the user does not agree with the decision, it may be disputed through the ticket system, or if the user is suspended, via the email address provided to them and will be reviewed for accuracy and uniformity.
12. I don’t know if my content is allowed.
If you have questions as to whether your content is allowed, please open a Trouble Ticket under “General > Question About Site Policy” with a link to the content in question and we will provide you with an answer.
13. I’m scared that I’m going to be banned from the website.
Although this rule is not new and has been in effect for over 7 years, we understand that there are concerns from users who may not have been familiar with the rule or understand the criteria for removal. Because of this, for 90 days after July 1st, all violations of UP 2.7 will NOT be escalated as severe offenses and will instead be treated as normal rules violations.
We do not have bots on Fur Affinity. Each report, dispute, and appeal is handled by real people. Sometimes, mistakes may happen, but we will work with you to correct any errors made on our part.
Furthermore, we do not support harassment of any kind on Fur Affinity. If someone harasses you, we encourage you to block them. If the harassment is serious or bypasses that block in any way on the website, please report it to us through the ticket system and we will review the situation.
14. I deleted my gallery too hastily!
We are really sorry to hear that and we don’t want to see you go. Please open a trouble ticket on the website under the category “Account Problem” and we will do our best to try and restore your content provided that it was deleted between May 19th and May 22nd. You have until May 26th to open a ticket on this issue.
End of the FAQ
Thank you for your patience and giving us the opportunity to provide clarification. We will continue to monitor all feedback we receive and will provide additional updates as necessary.
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