Getting Caught

The Berlin-Brandenburg media authority filed a complaint against this journal for distributing pornographic materials. Specifically, two issues from July linked to adult websites. I didn’t think twice about it when I posted the links, which is exactly the problem.

Now I’m going through everything I’ve ever published here, pulling things, rewriting sections, and sitting in meetings with youth protection officers. It’s the kind of thing that forces you to think in a way you usually avoid—about responsibility, about the people reading who are actually children, about the gap between how you imagine your audience and who your audience actually is.

I get the logic of it all. There’s a real difference between being crude and free in your own voice and actively directing underage people to pornographic content. I crossed that line without thinking about it. The adult part of me understands why that matters.

The weirdly clarifying part is realizing that running a platform isn’t consequence-free, even when you’re not doing it for money or attention. Even when you’re just saying what you think. The freedom to publish comes with actual responsibility, not just the idea of it. And the interesting stuff—the actually honest stuff—happens somewhere in the middle of being completely sanitized and completely lawless.

I’m not going to perform a moral transformation over this. But I am going to be more careful. Not out of fear of the authorities, just because I actually care whether this place stays interesting and worth reading.