My Views on “Rule 34” Ponies and the Importance of Responsibility

I honestly don’t mean to judge or offend anyone. Thought I’d just get that out of the way early on.

“Rule 34” has been creating a lot of drama in the MLP fandom lately. For those of you unfamiliar, “Rule 34” is an unofficial “rule of the Internet” that basically says that there’s porn of everything. When people refer to “Rule 34 Ponies,” they mean pony porn.

Now, my blog has featured some mild Rule 34 before. Partly because it’s sometimes amusing, partly because some of the less graphic stuff is legitimately high quality art, and artists like johnjoseco are consistently a great credit to the brony community.

So I just want to state plainly that I have NOTHING against anyone who creates, posts, views, or reblogs most Rule 34 content. I draw the line at Rule 34 when it crosses into pedophile territory, like stuff involving the Cutie Mark Crusaders and other fillies. That’s the only point where the art itself actually disgusts me. Besides that, if I have a distaste for anything content-wise, it’s that I just find hardcore content involving characters from a kids’ show in pony form to a be a bit odd. That’s not to say the people around it are particularly odd, but that’s just how I feel.

So really, if you’re into Rule 34, you go right on ahead and enjoy it. Whatever floats your boat, bronies. But here’s a humble consideration…

There’s a reason why parents are a little uncomfortable with our community, and frankly, I can’t say I disagree with them. I want to share a few things with you. Warning, many of them are NSFW.

These are the results of a series of Google Image Searches performed using innocuous MLP-related terms with safe search ON. Images and search terms included.

“Twilight Sparkle”

“Pinkie Pie”

“Applejack”

“Rarity”

“Rainbow Dash”

“Fluttershy”

So, as you can see, there’s a bit of a problem here. Sure, this stuff isn’t world shattering, and it’s stuff we’ve seen and enjoyed before. To a kid though, this is a bit of a different view for some of their favorite characters, isn’t it?

These weren’t buried in 20 pages of results, either. These were right up at the front of the pack, and again, safe search was on. If a ten year old girl innocently browses for pictures of her favorite cartoon characters, this is what she’s going to see.

What we have here is an issue of responsibility. Our fandom is not a private thing. It’s not hidden in Deviantart and Tumblr where age restrictions and terms of service apply. We’re all over the Internet, and it’s time we took responsibility about who’s viewing our content.

The common talking point of pro-Rule 34 people is “The show is about acceptance. You need to practice its lessons!” Well, Rule 34 people, you need to practice its lessons too. You need to think of the kids—the primary demographic of the show and not spoiling their safe haven with an early lesson on porn-inspired body image and Internet fetishism.

Artists, please continue right on with your work. Bronies, you go right on and consume whatever you enjoy. I’m not stopping you. Just keep in mind that there are responsibility issues where kids and this content are concerned.

You can start by tagging everything appropriately. If something is NSFW, tag it that way. Maybe it won’t help by much, but it’s a start.

Hopefully this will have opened somepony’s eyes on this issue. Again, I’m really not meaning to attack or offend anyone. Just speaking my mind.

Thoughts, anyone?