Regarding Erotica on Prose

Hi everybody. I would like to suggest that any and every time someone writes a piece containing erotica or mature themes that they label it as such. As our fellow writer Mrjdhyde put in his piece "How it works on prose." there is no censorship of content.

A lot of you do mark your pieces for the Romance & Erotica portal or put a warning at the top. I appreciate that. But I've noticed many people tend not to for one reason or another when they post something that contains erotica for the weekly Prose Challenge.

I mentioned this in the survey Prose sent out, but there is no reason we cannot implement this ourselves without their request we do so. After all, we are the partners and writers on Prose, providing the content. Let's save the hardworking Prose team some trouble.

I believe in free speech and am not in any way against writers or readers of erotica. But I'm also a mother to a young son. Anyone else started to read what you thought was an age-appropriate piece out loud to your kids or young audience, only to have to stop partway through and they ask why? Awkward!

We all know what chemistry between two people is. It's important, or you wouldn't be here to read this and I wouldn't be writing it, obviously. I'm not saying we should ignore that.

All I'm asking is that it be labeled. Why? (1) So people who aren't looking for it won't come across it and be unnecessarily inconvenienced or offended and (2) So people who are looking for it will find it.

If we did this, I feel parents would be more comfortable with Prose/letting their kids use it. And why should we not make it that way? The younger generation is our future, and literacy is more important than ever in the soundbite world we inhabit. This would make Prose more user friendly by more people.

Prose is a great place. Let's make it a great place for everyone.

Please tag me in the comments (or send me a message should that make you feel more comfortable) if you agree/disagree with this, have a different viewpoint you'd like to present, or want to contribute any thoughts in general regarding it. I'd love to know how you fellow writers feel about this topic and get some feedback.