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All stories that have underage (younger than 18 year old) characters involved in sexual scene (either participating or spectating) will be removed!

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First, I think that most, but perhaps not all of us would agree that in real life it is legally and morally questionable for an adult of say, twenty-five years or more to try to seduce an underage person of either sex. There is an inherent power/experience imbalance that works against the teenager.

That said, in fiction I think there is a huge difference in tone between

1) stories in which a young person under eighteen is being pursued, seduced, or stalked by an older person who is depicted, in the story, as acting in a morally repugnant way. That doesn't mean that the older person cannot be shown to be excited by the temptation or the reality of such an experience, but that, by some means the author contrives to show the reader that that character is 'wrong' to have given into that temptation -- which most of us have experienced. High school cheerleaders wear short skirts; there's nothing particularly wrong, I don't suppose, in adult males (or females) admiring the pretty legs of cheerleaders. But it is wrong, I think, for an older adult to take that admiration to the next level.

and

2) stories in which an older person uses a young person sexually in a setting in which such conduct is not depicted as reprehensible. I don't think it is 'wrong' or socially damaging or destructive to write a story about an older man lusting after high school cheerleaders as long as the tone of the story condemns his actions (even if it celebrates them in a prurient sense).

Even so, while I do not 'approve' of stories that portray such a male character in a positive light, I don't think they should be censored. They're still just stories.

This whole business, like all censorship, gets really nutty when you try to apply it in practice. As I said, I would not 'approve' a story which portrayed a thirty year old man seducing (or letting himself be seduced by) a sixteen-year-old girl with no moral context. But how about a twenty five year old man? A twenty year old man? An eighteen year old 'man'? Where should the line be drawn? Are all twenty year old men equal? Are all sixteen year old girls equal?

It gets worse. How about historical stories? To deny the existence of teenage sexuality in historical times is as nutty as to pretend that teenage sexuality wouldn't exist in our own time if it were not for 'dirty old men'. Juliet's nurse tells us "Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen". Clearly, it seems to me, fourteen was a different age, in social terms, in renaissance Verona than in many heartland crossroads today.

Finally, there is the issue -- and this hits home with me personally -- what if the age of the young person is a legitimate (and not merely a prurient) part of the entire plot. One of the scores of characters in the "Jade Pavilion" is Ci-ci, a poor Chinese girl who is about fourteen or fifteen when she takes employment as a maid in the Black Pagoda, the castle/palace of the villainous Richard Chan, who controls the Shanghai underworld in the 1880's. Chan takes a liking to the pretty young servant-girl and after a time he takes her to his bed, as he has so many women before her. Later, after being presented with false evidence against her (by his #1 concubine who is jealous of Chan's fondness for Ci-ci), Chan comes to believe that Ci-ci is a thief and a liar and turns her over to his minions, the Black Scorpions, who treat her very badly indeed. Meanwhile Ci-ci has an older sister, Peony, (who plays a much more important role in the overall story), and Peony, hearing of her sister's dreadful plight, offers herself to the Scorpions if they will let her little sister go free. Peony's unselfishness and nobility of spirit is one of the threads that binds this very long work together, and I don't think her sisterly sacrifice resonates nearly as well if Ci-ci is nineteen instead of fifteen.

Most of Ci-ci's history is told over several chapters of my book, but Peony appears and reappears throughout this very long story. As I said, changing Ci-ci's age by five years alters the entire tone of the story. Removing her from the story altogether leaves all sorts of loose ends because the relationship between the two sisters is an integral part of a long and complex story. Realistically, if Ci-ci goes down, so to speak, the "Jade Pavilion" -- which I have recently begun to work on again, after a lengthy hiatus -- is going down with her.

And I think it would be a sad irony if a work which was intended to broaden the horizons of erotica should contribute to their being narrowed.

Boccaccio