alright so i was contemplating on whether or not i should be posting this here because i didn't want to be that person, but this has been a recurring problem within the applyfic community that makes me cringe to no end. and this problem is how authors and readers are portraying and using minors in fics and apps.

 

first and foremost: i'm not condemning the use of minors in a fic. though personally i feel uncomfortable using a legal child's face for a story or an application, i don't think it's an inherently bad thing because if your character is a minor, logically you'd want to use a minor as a face claim.

 

the first problem is, you shouldn't be using minors as face claims for adult characters.

 

but suji! there's so many characters with adults used to be minors! what's the difference you ask? 

 

well, the characters are fictional. using a legal adult for an underaged character has no reprucussions because in the case there is any explicit content involved in a story, the faceclaims themselves are already adults so it doesn't matter. who cares if an year old has consensual ? no one.

 

but using minors as a face claim for an adult character? yikes! whether or not the character themselves are exposed to things such as alcohol and doesn't matter, because kids are KIDS and you should let them be kids. the face claims you're using are children under the law and scientifically don't have the same brain development as adults do which is why there's legal age limits for everything. DON'T TAKE AWAY A KID'S INNOCENCE FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR ENTERTAINMENT.

 

and hey, if you're anything like me, chances are, you were exposed to things like and whatever while you were in middle school or high school and to you, it's nothing. so there's no problem, right?

 

wrong again!

 

because the minor face claims you're using AREN'T YOU. they're complete strangers in a completely different country and if you're taking their face for a story, you should at least have the decency to not drag them into whatever you're doing because. again. THEY'RE CHILDREN. give both them and their parents some respect by not ualizing or adultifying them in any way, shape, or form.

 

this also goes into my next point, of don't you DARE use the face of a minor and have their love interest be an adult.

 

because i get it, in regular every day life it isn't a big deal for a 17 year old to mess around with a 19 year old, but like i said it's not your face. it's there's. there's a chance that these kids aren't comfortable with being romantically involved with anyone older when they're still in high school, and the adults you're using probably don't want to screw around with a legal child. even if the relationship is completely innocent with hand holding, it doesnt matter.

 

so please, please, PLEASE stop this epidemic of adultifying children in your applyfics and let them at least be kids through stories when they're already ualized and adultified enough in real life.