by Abbie Adkerson
The truth about fanfiction reveals the violence and perverse sexuality at work in fan-made stories. This is part two of a series that will reveal the truth about fandoms, fanfiction, and bondage in the realm of escapism.
What is fanfiction?
Writers of fanfiction play with stories like a child might play with legos. They use pre-existing characters and plot lines to construct an entirely new story. Any subject such as Star Trek, Minecraft, popular Youtubers, or One Direction could be used as a launchpad for fanfiction. Some websites dedicated to this genre are Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. These two archives alone have over 8 million stories that range in length anywhere from short stories to multi-volume novels.
If your child has access to the internet, they can access fanfiction in a multitude of ways. Online writing communities like Wattpad.com, any social media account, or even art communities like Deviantart.com can suck children into reading through vast collections of fanfiction. Some stories are innocent, but many are extremely violent and perverse.
“Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”
Every fanfiction site allows readers access to the worst kinds of violent or erotic fiction by adding specific tags in their search. Some of these tags include:
- Dark: refers to plots that introduce elements such as death, violence, rape, betrayal, or loss.
- Lemon and Lime: the former features explicit sex stories, while “Lime” denotes a story that has sexual themes but is not necessarily explicit.
- PWP: “Porn without a plot” or “Plot? What plot?” means the story contains little or no plot besides abundant sexual interactions.
- Slash and Het: a subgenre of romance fanfiction that exclusively deals in homosexual relationships.
Note: See this website for a more complete list of fanfiction categories.
The dangers for children
Children who harbor an intense passion for certain characters, people, or movies can draw a lot of satisfaction from reading these fictional stories. But even if a child stumbles across fanfiction by accident, it can lure them into God-less obsessions and poison their minds with all forms of sexual immorality.
As an article from Insider.com warns, “teenagers are discovering that the world of YouTube fan fiction can have a dark, sexual, and violent side.” In the world of fanfiction, writers can undress their favorite Youtubers, force them to murder or submit them to unspeakable kinds of self-harm and abuse. One writer from fanfiction.net gives an entire guide to writing convincing smut fiction, including how to describe arousal, kissing, and various kinds of intercourse.
The Christian response
Fanfiction is not inherently sinful. As sub-creators under God, all of our storytelling could be considered “fanfiction.” There is nothing new under the sun, and we delight in fashioning new ideas from the building blocks around us. Even children are masters of fanfiction, running around the backyard as their favorite hero and staving off evil forces from the creekside. Any good story will draw you into the world it creates and into the company of its characters. So in a way, fanfiction is a natural response to a well-told story.
Solutions
- Don’t assume that your child will not find pornographic content online. Some fanfiction may pop up in the suggested area of social media sites, like Pinterest. Take precautions to block fanfiction websites, online writing communities, and unnecessary social media websites from home internet devices. Consider subscribing to a service that regulates internet access in your home as set by parents.
- Take the purity of your children seriously. Although most fanfiction writers are female, both sons and daughters need continual input from mom and dad about the qualities a spouse should have.
- Keep tabs on the things your children talk about with their friends; stay in conversation with them about why they love certain books, movies, and characters. Never assume an obsession is harmless, even if the subject matter seems harmless.
- Model a godly marriage to your children. Through observation and discussion, children can understand what godly relationships in the family look like versus destructive relationships built upon self-gratification.
- My third tip may seem a bit extreme to some: Don’t allow your child to take a device into their room that connects to the internet. Based upon my experience, I’d argue that no child, even through 12th grade needs free access to the online world in their bedroom. After reading this blog series on fandoms, fanfiction, and the realm of escapism, I hope you will understand why.
Abbie Adkerson is a homegrown Middle Tennessean whose education experiences range from public school and private Christian school to homeschool tutorials with The Comenius School (at Franklin Classical School). It was at TCS where she developed a love of classical Christian education and Scripture study.
She received her A.A.S. in Visual Communication and Graphic Design at Nashville State Community College and is currently pursuing her B.A. in Liberal Arts and Culture at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho.
Her perfect afternoon would be spent watercoloring, jewelry making, or paper cutting while listening to a good audiobook.