Livejournal has announced more changes to the journaling system, specifically how adult material will be kept away from the kiddies.  Fanartists and fan authors are long used to rating their own works, usually by cribbing the MPAA ratings system, the TV ratings system, or a clearly-marked offshoot of one or the other.  (This led to the MPAA leaning on Fanfiction.net a while back to change their own ratings system to the current, non-copied format.)

LJ has instituted a voluntary ratings system for users to mark their own entries or entire journals with specific content warning levels.  Entries or journals that would have been self-rated as "PG-13" can be marked as "Adult Concepts."  R-rated or NC-17-rated material can be marked as "Explicit Adult Content."  Ages are required to set up Livejournal accounts, regardless of whether or not the age is listed on the user's profile, so users below the age of 14 would be disallowed from viewing "Adult Concept" entries, and users under 18 would be disallowed from viewing "Explicit Adult Content" material.  Additionally, logged-out users have to click a link certifying they are of the proper age to view the material.

Using the conveniently grouped TheLJStaff account, the admins posted the following explanation (boldface type is theirs):

At LiveJournal, we recognize that there is some content that may be fine for adults, but not for kids. We don't want kids seeing content that's not meant for them, and we know you don't either. LiveJournal wants to prevent minors from seeing adult content in a way that does not interfere with the experience of users who are 18 and over. The ability to set entries, journals, and communities as either "Adult Concepts" or "Explicit Adult Content" is a functionality community maintainers and users have been requesting for a long time. As a result, we've created a set of tools that give you control over whether the things you create and share on LJ are accessible to people under the age of 18.

We've outlined the changes in detail below, and also in the FAQs, but in brief:

• Adults will remain able to see all content on the site unless prevented by the exisiting security settings.
• The primary goal is to give you the ability to mark your own content so that kids aren't seeing stuff that is meant for adults.
• You now have the option to flag other people's content that you think is inappropriate for users under the age of 18. However, nothing will happen to that content unless multiple people flag it. Only then will it be sent to the Abuse Prevention Team for review.
• If your content is flagged by other users, adults will still be able to access it as long as they have the appropriate permissions.

We hope you're happy with our solution and look forward to your comments and feedback. Want to know more? Keep reading...

How Does the Voluntary Adult Setting Work?

You may voluntarily mark any entry you create, your entire journal, or a community you maintain as either "Adult Concepts" or "Explicit Adult Content." These are defined as follows:

Adult Concepts: Content that is not explicitly graphic, but may contain mature themes that could be inappropriate for anyone under the age of 14.

Explicit Adult Content: Content that is graphic and explicit (depicting nudity, sexuality, or violence) that is appropriate only for adults and is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. This label does not imply that the content is considered obscene, just that it is not appropriate for minors. We recommend that a journal or community is set as "Explicit Content" if more than 50% of the total entries have graphic or explicit images or text.

Users under the age of 18 will automatically be blocked from joining communities or seeing content marked as "Explicit Adult Content." However, users who are between the ages of 14 and 17 will be able to join communities marked as "Adult Concepts" and content marked in that manner will be viewable to them. This will alleviate the need for community maintainers to screen every user who joins a community.

Essentially, this is the compromise fandom has been asking for since Strikethrough 2007, which is a good thing, if belated on LJ's part.  Self-rating allows for individual expression and sharing of content and provides plenty of return fire should the Purity Police rear their heads again.  No one will be exposed to adult content unless s/he claims to be old enough to handle it.  We applaud LJ for this part of the new system, and hope fans will take advantage of the ratings.

That said, this is the carrot.  The stick comes with the same post.  The long-threatened Flagging Tool has come to pass.  I'll let LJ explain:

How Can I Flag Content I Feel Is Inappropriate?

While we offer users the opportunity to accurately use the adult content settings within their own journals, we are aware that this will not always be the case, which is why we've additionally created the functionality to allow users to flag content they feel is inappropriate. Please note that content visibility will NOT be affected just because someone flags it. Only after the content has been reviewed by the Abuse Prevention Team will a decision be made as to whether or not it warrants an adult content setting.

Users who choose to flag another person's entry, journal, or community will be given five options: "Explicit Adult Content," "Offensive Content," "Hate Speech," "Illegal Activity," or "Nude Images of Minors." If the user flags the content as "Explicit Adult" or "Offensive Content," the content will automatically go into a moderation queue. If and when content has been flagged by several users, it will be sent to the Abuse Prevention Team to determine if an adult content setting is necessary. Both the "Explicit Adult Content" and "Offensive Content" settings will affect filtered search results (see below), but only the "Explicit Adult" setting will result in restricted viewing for those under the age of 18.

Any content flagged as "Hate Speech," "Illegal Activity," or "Nude Images of Minors" will direct the user to the Abuse Reporting System where he/she will be asked to fill out a report including the URL of the content. These instances will be handled in the same manner as always.

Our cautious optimism, er, flags a bit here.  While the Flagging Tool may be used fr the forces of Good, it will likely become also a tool for the forces of Stupidity, as personal vendettas and wankery crank up the flag numbers on unpopular entries.

LJ team member Marta said: "There are process in place to avoid malicious reporting. If a user is overreporting content or repeatedly reporting content which does not fit standards the 'flags' from that user will not be seen by the Abuse Prevention Team, nor count towards the threshold to have it reviewed."

So the word from the staff is that they have a plan should it be abused, but it will take time to find repeat offenders.  Personally, I think the tool will go down in flames, ut as always, time will tell.  Again speaking personally, I don't like the quick "here's our voluntary solution" followed by "and here's the punishment if you don't do it."  A grace period should have been instituted, at a minimum, especially for users who only check in once or twice a month.

Again, I am cautiously optimistic and would be happy were it not for the timing of the two announcements (well frankly, the flagging tool has been mentioned by the staff before and will be a bad idea no matter when they rolled it out).  We will see, as always.  Meanwhile, sit back, pull up a chair and some popcorn, and watch the wank.