Commons:Sexual content

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Revision as of 01:15, 12 May 2010 by Dcoetzee (talk | contribs) (Add Other laws section - no speedy deletion by 2257, but OTRSing age documentation is great if you can do it...)
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This page is a proposed Commons guideline, policy, or process.
The proposal may still be in development, under discussion, or in the process of gathering consensus for adoption. References or links to this page should not describe it as "policy".

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For the current official policies & guidelines of Wikimedia Commons, dealing with this subject, see Commons:Scope, Commons:Commons is not censored, and Commons:Nudity

The purpose of the Wikimedia Commons project (see Commons:Scope) is to serve as a media repository for image, sound, and video files which are free for anyone to use (either public domain, or available under an open-source license) and that meet broadly-defined criteria of being educational. These files are available for use by other Wikimedia projects, and also by the online community as a whole.

The files which are permitted to be hosted at Commons are limited by our community's official policies and guidelines (as well as by law) in a number of ways. For instance, Commons:Licensing addresses the issues of copyright concerns.

In order to maintain our focus and reputation as a high-quality repository of freely-licensed files suitable for educational use, it is being proposed that we need to put some basic restrictions on what kind of sexually explicit files can be hosted at Commons, while attempting to minimize the damage to our educational goals.

This proposed guideline deals with these sexual content concerns. While this is a highly controversial subject and a number of previous proposals have been rejected by the Commons' community, it is also recognised that some files do not fall within our educational remit. Further, if the collection of educational files includes large quantities of sexually explicit material, it might impact our reputation. The following restrictions seek to minimise the issues which arise from sexual content, while attempting to ensure that our educational mission is not compromised.

What do we mean by sexual content?

Because it is difficult to give a precise definition of what is "sexual", the following should be seen as a set of rules of thumb, not as drawing precise lines. Whatever rules we lay down, there will always be borderline cases that require judgment.

By "sexual content" we are generally referring to:

  • Images that portray sexual acts
    • Vaginal, anal or oral intercourse
    • Masturbation
  • Images that portray sadomasochism
  • Images that prominently feature genitalia

Primarily, we are concerned with images related to human sexuality; there is a similar but lesser concern with the appropriateness of images of other intraspecies mammalian sexuality and a generally lesser concern with non-mammalian sexuality.

Except insofar as images prominently feature genitalia or sexual activity, mere nudity is not a concern in this respect.

Content which is not permitted

The following categories of content are not permitted on commons:

  • Content which would be illegal for Commons to host, such as photographs of child pornography.[1] As the servers for Commons are in the United States (Florida), U.S. federal and Florida state law applies.
    • Per our Precautionary principle, visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct where there is a legitimate concern that not all participants (in the explicit content) are above 18 years of age[2] should be speedy deleted.
  • Sexual content uploaded without the consent of the participants should be speedy deleted, when these are living or recently deceased people. See Photographs of identifiable people.
  • Content clearly not educational or otherwise in scope. See Commons is not your personal free webhost; this policy applies equally to sexual and non-sexual content.

Other laws

In the United States, in addition to laws regarding child pornography, there are laws regarding obscenity and laws, such as the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act (18 U.S.C. § 2257), that require documentation of the age of models by content providers. At the present time, Commons does not impose any content restrictions based on these laws, and does not allow speedy deletion based on these laws. However, if age documentation for sexual content can be obtained, it should be sent to OTRS to help avoid any later problems.

Evaluating sexual content

(see Commons:Nudity for the current policy)

Pornographic material may generally be speedy deleted only if it is clear they do not fall into at least one of the following classifications:

  1. The specific content or the content's creator is notable.
  2. The images are either of artistic, literary, or historical merit, or are a part of a larger work that fits those requirements. For example, the shocking conclusion to Oscar Wilde's Salome has a necrophiliac scene with Salome and the head of John the Baptist, but the work is also considered a literary classic, so video or pictures of the work would be perfectly acceptable on Commons.
  3. The material is an artwork, including, but not limited to, paintings, engravings, etchings, lithographs, needlework, and sculpture. Commons does not seek to censor the world's artistic heritage, and consensus has come down strongly in favour of continuing to host erotic and pornographic artworks, as they are an important part of the history of art.[3]
  4. The material is "realistically useful for an educational purpose" (ref Commons:Project scope), such as diagrams, illustrations, photographs, medical photographs of diseases, high quality images of body parts,[4] and illustrations of the various styles of erotic art. The material can have an educational value even if they are not created for that purpose (for example File:Masturbating hand.jpg illustrating female masturbation.).

All works that fall within one or more of those categories are generally acceptable on Commons. Borderline cases should go through the full deletion review process.

  • If an image or other media is in use on at least one Wikimedia project for educational purposes, the full deletion process must be used. Legal issues are the only exception.

Categorization

(see Commons:Categorization for a more detailed discussion of appropriate categorization procedures)

Categories are meant to allow users to find material suiting one or another criteria easily. Some of what they are looking for may fall under the broad category of sexual content. However, there is rarely a need to categorize in such a way as to surprise people searching for one type of content with sexual content. For example: this image, a picture of a fully nude porn star spraying herself with whipped cream, was found in Category:People eating, which it is, at best, only a vaguely accurate description.

The problem may be solved by leaving sexual content out of marginal categories, and, if necessary, creating categories such as "Category:Pornographic depictions of X" (which can be put as a subcategory of "Category:X") to separate out very different takes on images. For instance File:Félicien Rops - Sainte-Thérèse.png, an anti-Catholic erotic artwork of Saint Teresa of Ávila, might be put into Category:Pornographic depictions of Saint Teresa of Ávila in a political context, instead of the main category, if necessary.

Descriptions

Descriptions of images related to sexuality should always be written in an style oriented toward encyclopedic and educational intent. Image names and descriptions on Commons should be as neutral as possible.

Previous proposals

These previous proposals have been rejected by the Commons' community
  1. A sandbox / demonstration of media filtering (April 2010)
  2. April 2010 (being an evolution of the below)
  3. Proposals from 2008, final revision January 2009
  4. /Deletion log a list of deletions made under the new 'jimbo' instructions
  5. feel free to create a subpage for discussion / development of your ideas :-)

Notes

  1. ↑ Child pornography is defined in 18 USC 2256 in the sections 2B and 8.
  2. ↑ U.S. law defines a minor as being under the age of 18. See 18 USC 2256 section 1
  3. ↑ It can be difficult for non-experts to evaluate art, and, as such, the full deletion process is preferred. An exception may be made in the case of user-created artwork without educational value.
  4. ↑ These may be labelled, but, as we serve hundreds of languages, we will always need some unlabelled images to make new labelled diagrams.
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