Dear ADV, WTF?
So ADV has this brilliant plan. It involves launching a streaming site for anime online and airing episodes subtitled for free. They’re starting it out with Gurren Lagann. The first ep is up now, and each week a new episode will be added. Older episodes will be available for two weeks after they originally launch on the site. Good stuff, right?
Well, except for this one thing. Now, unless ADV has made some serious changes to Gurren Lagann, the series isn’t pornographic. I would probably rate it PG-13. And there doesn’t seem to be any hentai on the site. And yet, in the TOS you see before entering the site…
2. You represent that you are at least 18 years of age, or you have reached the legal age of majority under the law of the jurisdiction where you are domiciled.
3. You will not attempt to access the site if you are not at least 18 years of age (or the legal age of majority under the law of the jurisdiction where you are domiciled) nor will you assist anyone else in doing so in a manner inconsistent with these terms and conditions.
Wow. So the only way for under-18 anime fans to get legal, quick, subtitled anime is to…illegally say that they’re 18 to enter the site? That’s kinda lame.
Not that it’s difficult to get around or anything. I mean, it’s just pushing a button. But still, the principle seems a little odd to me.
Original source: The Anime Network Anime on Demand
Secondary source: a super ad-tastic ANN
The usual age limit for most web-based services, especially those involving account creation, is 13 years old so setting the age of consent at 18 does seem odd at first. Except that two series on the AOD service are rated TV-MA - Air Gear and Magical Play - and thus the powers that be decided to institute a gateway TOS for visitors to click through. (I didn’t even read the TOS the first time I looked at the site…)
Point #3 seems to be too strict considering the majority of anime being offered is rated TV-PG and TV-14. (Gurren Lagann is presently rated TV-14, pretty much equivalent to your suggestion of PG-13.) I doubt that ADV will seriously go after sub-18-year-olds since it’s too much trouble to do anyway and also because a good portion of their audience/fanbase is teenagers.
I think it’s just ADV washing their hands off possible repercussions in case some parent groups try to go after them for inadvertently showing any content that might be construed as “inappropriate” for younger viewers.
Just a case of them saving their butts before the fact… no biggie :)
- T
Tolitz speaks the truth. Anime is a little odd sometimes; even if it’s aimed at kids or young teenagers, Japanese shows tend to have character types or situations that conservative middle-American parents might consider to be disturbing and possibly some sort of bad influence on their kids.
Take something as innocent as Cardcaptor Sakura. How would you explain the relationship between Sakura and Tomoyo, which sometimes ventures into ‘girl crush’ territory at the very least, to the average American parent? More recently, Naruto had to be sanitized to show on Cartoon Network here in the States, editing out blood and particularly violent bits.
They just don’t want angry Christian (or hippie) parents coming after them. Everyone knows kids are going to click right through these warnings, so they get their anime fix and their parents get no right to complain to ADV for corrupting the morals of the youth.
@T, Smoove: I’m sure they’ve got their reasons, but as Tolitz said– teenagers, including those under 18, are a *significant* chunk of the anime and manga market. It seems like a silly move to exclude them entirely– why not mix up a COPPA thing where kids under 18 have to get and send in parental consent? (In COPPA it’s designated for children under *13*, but there’s no reason why a site couldn’t mandate it for all kids under 18).
As for shows that ARE more adult– like TV-MA and example –there are plenty of ways to restrict the use of just those and not TV-14 shows. For example, those kids under 18 who send in parental consent forms could be given accounts that only allow them to access the shows whose ratings are appropriate for them. Or if they didn’t want to deal with accounts– why not put the 18-only messages on JUST those TV-MA videos instead of on the entire site?
I dunno, maybe they were in a hurry to roll the site out and are planning to change things later– but again, it just seems silly to completely cut out a significant chunk of the market. Unless they decided to make it easy to get around so kids would get in anyway– in which case the justifications of covering their butts are moot, because it’s too easy to just lie; it hardly counts as a protection.
So, “no biggie?” I guess not– unless you’re an under-18 anime fan and want to be honest. ;)