Better check those journals twice.
The pandemic took a lot from us. Fresh air, time with our loved ones, the wool from our eyes — but it also gave us new things. Namely, newly run literary journals.
If you, like me, hang out in the Twitter writer community, then chances are you’ve seen more than one new online literary journal pop up. They usually have colorful icons, ‘lit’ or ‘mag’ at the end of their username, and are constantly tweeting and retweeting other literary journals to form a tight-knit writing community.
These new journals are also usually run by minors or have a minor somewhere in their publication team.
It makes sense. Colleges are constantly looking for impressive extracurriculars, teenagers were bored during the pandemic and wanted to do something productive, and bingo bongo, a bunch of teenagers started their own literary magazine that they promote on Twitter. What’s the problem?
Well, not all minor-run literary journals disclose they’re run by minors, and those that do might not have it written so plainly on their website. Some minor-run literary journals publish explicit adult content, making it easy to assume, “Oh, this literary journal posts adult content, which means it’s run by adults. I can submit some of my NSFW works here,” but do not make that mistake.
A recap of U.S. federal law concerning obscenity:
Federal law strictly prohibits the distribution of obscene matter to minors. Any transfer or attempt to transfer such material to a minor under the age of 16, including over the Internet, is punishable under federal law.
- CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO U.S. FEDERAL LAW ON OBSCENITY
Further insight into what could be considered obscene to minors:
The standard of what is harmful to minors may differ from the standard applied to adults. Harmful materials for minors include any communication consisting of nudity, sex or excretion that (i) appeals to the prurient interest of minors, (ii) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable material for minors, (iii) and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.
-CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO U.S. FEDERAL LAW ON OBSCENITY
Now it does say ‘lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors’. Presumably, if you’re submitting into a literary journal, you would hope your work contains literary and/or artistic value, but I would still not take that chance.
If you’re not sure who’s running the literary journal, then do not submit NSFW works. Even if the journal publishes NSFW works themselves.
I’d take it a step ahead and say if you can’t find any info on who runs a literary journal, then don’t submit at all, because that could be a big red flag further down the line, but I’m aware not everyone has the time to stalk people down.
And so,
If you’re trying to find somewhere to put your more adult-oriented works, be careful. Check the submission guidelines, check the website’s ‘About Us’, check their Twitter. If you can’t find information on whether minors run the publication, don’t just say, “Whatever,” and submit. Move on to another publication until you find a nice, lovely, and most of all, safe home for your work.
