Introduction

Overall, I had been a relative babe in the World of Wattpad, having only joined since November of 2016. In that time, I had read an uncountable number of stories and managed to publish 10 books. Despite this somewhat manic activity, I still feel as though I have only scratched the surface. However, I have noticed several patterns and tendencies, which tend to come in threes.

As a fairly new contributor to Wattpad, I had regularly peeked at the Wattpad Commandments — The Wattpad Terms of Service (TOS), The Wattpad Code of Conduct (COC) and The Wattpad Content Guidelines (CG). My writing includes themes of sexual and psychological abuse in my writing and have been known to write the occasional sensual stanza. I wanted to do the right thing.

I began to disseminate my poetry into piles of ‘Mature’ and ‘Everyone’. Disappointingly, I had nothing for the third category — ‘Prohibited’. The content guidelines themselves seemed to be okay on first reading. It was written with straightforward language for universal understanding. I found myself nodding to the points about graphic violence, self harm and illegal activity. However, I did balk at Wattpad’s restrictions to written content and media when it came to sex and nudity.

This brings me to my first point of contention. The CG uses the term ‘non-consensual sex’. There is no such thing and it is a deceiving euphemism. Call it what it actually is, which is rape. Everyone understands rape.

Fortunately, the other oddities in the Wattpad CGwere often amusing. For example:
“A sex scene does not specifically need to be sex itself”
Yes. Yes it does. It is a sex scene. Oh, wait. You meant penetrative sex? Why not just say it outright? I promise not to blush. Neither will children over 13. Most of them have already been given ‘the talk’ at home, at school or even in respective religious groups. Unfortunately, a large proportion of children that age with have also been exposed to porn. We should be using the correct word instead of beating about the bush.

Then there is the definition of partial nudity in the media restrictions:
Partial nudity means partial or intentionally obscured exposure of any private parts such as genitalia, breasts and behinds.
This statement reminded me of a television advertisement where the narrator tries to judge how far a man can walk from the beach in his Speedos until people think they are undies. I always thought that intentional obscuring of private parts is called getting dressed. What about underwear? Swimwear? A cheerleader outfit? What is ‘behinds’? Oh, buttocks. Just say it outright, Dad. Nicky Minaj is allowed to do so on radio airplay. Sir Mix-a-lot has been doing it since you were 13. Doctors say it to you before they stick a needle in it, for goodness sakes.

Although I had tried to keep this relatively light, the ramifications of Wattpad’s poor writing of their CG does cause problems. A friend of mine was notified by Wattpad, without preamble that her book would be moved to ‘Mature’. They cited over 50 chapters. Since they were poems on such racy topics such as a rain drought, I assumed that the issue was not with graphic violence or self-harm. That left the equally puzzling categories of ‘a sex scene’ and ‘media’. Wattpad did not describe what was wrong with each chapter, which is unusual and somewhat lackadaisical for any censoring board. They left her to guess on her own. They must enjoy playing messenger tag.

The treatment of my friend as above, as well as my other previous misgivings indicated that the Wattpad staff has difficulty understanding its own guidelines. The staff does does not explain the issues when an issue is perceived. Even worse, its process of enforcement, appears flawed and have the potential to cause distress, as it did to my friend. By setting the CG, Wattpad is establishing a moral code. Inappropriate censorship, therefore not only reduces a writer’s audience potential, but also makes the writer feel as though they have been wrong or immoral in some way. The slow communication itself is frustrating and damaging on a platform that relies on social media for momentum. Although I may be biased, the whole process had been inherently unjust.

So is there a better way? I am not sure. But I intend to use this book to review how Wattpad’s users include sex, sexual and sexualisation in their writing. As a community, are we meeting these lofty ideals of ‘no behinds’? Is Wattpad’s framework, with its categories, recommendations and hashtags congruent with its guidelines?

Of course, the moral code is only meaningful if it is enforced consistently. In the case of my friend, I believe it was not, although I will expand on this in a later chapter. But is Wattpad keeping up with the ones who are breaking their CG? Or are the guidelines ‘jaywalker’ laws set in downtown New York? I guess we will see.