Discussion: Kids Finding Clop?

For those who don’t know, I have made quite a few posts about children finding “adult” content related to “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” (Each word in “I…posts” is a separate link. That might not be obvious, depending on where you’re reading this.) (EDIT: I found another post.)

But recently I found another post decrying bronies who make and consume such content, and it made me think about all these stories. (Forgive me for beating a dead horse [that idiom is doubly appropriate in this case], but after all, it was part of Pinkiepony’s original motivation for “Down with Molestia” [my reblogging/response].) (When I checked the original source of the post, I discovered that it was related to “Down with Molestia” as well [see the tags]. Come on!)

My initial reaction towards them is confusion: How exactly did these children find such content? If my experiments (two separate links) are accurate, it would be very difficult to find such content. And what exactly was this content that they found?

These questions are not likely to be answered, because these are passing incidents that people don’t want to revisit, which is understandable. But that evokes my next reaction: concern and maybe even fear. I fear that people will take these claims for granted, without bothering to investigate their sources or the circumstances surrounding the events in them. Things hit the fan when ill-substantiated beliefs (not exactly rumors, but close to them) get out of hand. Take Tumblr’s new terms (two separate links) as an example. As another, more serious one, take the whole thing about how a certain vaccine supposedly causes autism.

Okay, the consequences of these claims about children finding this content probably aren’t as extreme as outbreaks of disease (yes, they did happen because too few children were vaccinated!). But what are the consequences? Content being removed. Most of the Tumblr blog removals I’ve seen were due to posting depictions of underaged characters, but the latest, that of “Ask Princess Molestia,” was different. If you notice, Pinkiepony’s e-mail to Hasbro about “Ask Princess Molestia” (and “The Fall of Equestria”) addressed the potential for children to access the works. There is still doubt as to whether this e-mail actually did lead to the removal or not, but I think this is indicative of what might come.