This post is part 2 (of what I have decided to be a 2 part post combo)
I wanted to talk about age ratings on NG and where the lines between ratings are, specifically for art, and give examples of some art that could be rated differently.
A couple notes:
First, I want to make it explicitly clear that I am NOT saying that any of these artists *should* change the ratings on their art. That is for them to decide, not me. What I want to do is show some examples of art that *could* be rated differently to help people better understand age ratings.
Second, this is all my view on this. I do not have a whole lot of experience with this topic and I am in no way official or necessarily completely accurate to what the people who run Newgrounds want things to be rated, so take all this with a grain of salt. Or garlic powder. Unless you're a vampire.
Also, despite the topic of this post I am not 100% sure how to rate this post but imo it is technically borderline A rated because it has an A-rated image linked (twice, once by itself and kinda once in the playlist) but also I tried to pick art that was on the less mature side purposefully and I am also talking about why these art pieces could be rated differently anyways so I made the post M rated because that's what I feel like it should be. If you are at all sensitive about this kind of stuff and you're concerned about finding something you don't want to see, I don't want you to be uncomfortable so if you think it's better to click off of this then go ahead :)
Anyways, sorry for writing so much before the actual meat of the post, let's get into it.
To start off I want to cover the NG wiki page on art guidelines (https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/terms-of-use/art-guidelines) and what it says about age ratings.
"Here is an overview of how ratings should be applied:
E - Nothing intended to arouse, no violence, no bad language, no adult themes including alcohol, tobacco, drugs or fetishes.
T - Fully-clothed, lightly sexy pin-up, mild cartoon violence, mild explicit language, mild mature themes, no fetishes.
M - Sexualized characters, violence, explicit language, fetishes, mature themes.
A - Nudity, sex, skintight or see-through outfits that leave nothing to the imagination, extreme gore, fetishes, extreme adult themes.
Please make your best effort to rate your art appropriately. Mild artistic nudity (non-sexualized butts, mostly) is allowed in M-rated submissions but we ask that nudity not be shown in a thumbnail unless a submission is A-rated. Any nudity with sexual undertones should go ahead with an A rating. Anything that gives the impression of nudity, like a skintight outfit that retains all of the shapes of what is underneath, is a safe bet for an A rating."
And a bit down from that:
"...If you are uncertain about how to rate your art, it is preferred to rate it on the higher side."
All text there was copied directly from the linked page above.
I want to highlight a couple parts of the official descriptions of the age ratings:
E-rated art contains "nothing intended to arouse", "no bad language", and "no adult themes", and sometimes those things depend on the artist. Since E is the lowest age rating, its boundary entirely depends on where artists place the lower bounds of T-rated art.
"Fully clothed" and "mild adult themes" also depend on the artist sometimes. Considering those two things are in the same category, it's easy for different people to have different views on what is considered "fully clothed." For example, I would assume that most people would probably agree that wearing a shirt and pants is fully clothed. Some people consider swimsuits to be full clothing, some people don't (although there are many different types of swimsuit, but this is just an example). Also, let's consider a piece of art of a character drawn multiple times in different poses. One of the poses has the character flipping off some other guy. It's up to the artist to decide whether that single pose makes the whole artwork fit with "mild adult themes" or not, and it heavily depends on the person.
As for M-rated stuff, the complexity in rating artwork mostly comes from the fact that it is sandwiches between two ratings. People have different opinions on how mature some stuff is and so the boundary between T and M changes from artist to artist. The boundary between M and A is slightly less dependent on the person because there is a distinct line on what is definitely A-rated that is a good base for rating A or M.
A-rated art is a very wide range, since it is the highest rating, but there is still a little bit of difference in the boundary of A-M rated artwork. "Skintight or see-through outfits that leave nothing to the imagination" is slightly dependent on the artist, perhaps more so on the art style and detail of the art.
So, considering all that, I have a playlist of art that I picked that I think are good examples of art that could have been rated differently:
They are ordered by rating.
Before I talk about these, I want to mention again that I am not professional, and this post is just my thoughts on this topic. Also, I am not saying any of this art *should* be rated differently, just that theoretically it could have been. Please, don't go harass the people who made these artworks about the ratings. I picked these because I like them all and I want to share them while using them as examples, not to explain what's wrong with them.
Also, of you see your own art here and you don't want it to be here, PM me and I will edit the post as soon as I see your message :7
Now that all that is out of the way, I'll start from the beginning of the playlist.
What's been distracting you so much from your work?
By yumykon
Rated E
I like the shading on the hair and the blur effect on the background
This could very well have been T for a couple reasons:
First, the outfit is ever so slightly showy and the angle the art is shown along with the pose of the character adds a little to that.
The title also implies that whoever the character in the art is talking to is distracted from their work by the person, but in what way is up for interpretation.
Now, although the artwork is up for interpretation, I am going to inject my opinion just once to say that I think that this piece specifically should be rated T, exclusively because it has a link to patron mentioning a nude version. Although I want to leave the artworks themselves up to the artists to decide the ratings for, I think that a post with a link leading to NSFW stuff shouldn't be rated E. But that's just my opinion. Again, please do not go tell people what they should rate their art. It's not your job to do that.
New character
By TwoSipsofBleach
Rated E
Look at those drill bits! I want a giant drill bit...
This could have been T rated, mostly because the outfit is half transparent and it narrows down between the legs. However there's very little else and it's also clearly not intended to be sexual at all so it is definitely in E/T limbo
Do you think they sell drill bits like that at the hardware store?
Asking for a friend...
Catherine late Bday!!
By HeavensAlternate
Rated E
I like the bits of hair separated from the head, and also
~sparkles~
This could have been rated T, again mostly because of the outfit. It's just slightly showy in a few places and the underwear is visible. The pose adds a little bit to it, but it depends per person whether the image as a whole seems suggestive or not.
Cass
By MLeth
Rated T
I love the style of the eyes in this :7
I looked for a long time to find art rated T that could have been M rated.
This fits part the official description of M-rated art, specifically "Sexualized characters," and it shows a bit more detail than a lot of other T-rated art. It is clearly intended to be very suggestive. However, M-rated art has the upper boundary of A-rated art, and some M-rated art is a lot closer to that boundary than this artwork, so it really could be T or M.
Cookie Monster
By Gerph
Rated T
🍪
I mean... Cookie monster is literally from a kids show
I suppose he is intimidating because he is a monster, and large but so is your mom :P
Pirate commission
By SailorYon
Rated T
Can I have tentacle hair? Imagine the rock climbing capabilities
This could definitely have been rated E, it features a gun and clothes torn in two places which could be ever so slightly mature for some people but it also is not specifically intended to be mature so it could be either.
Gamer Lucia
By ScottMalin
Rated M
Is that balatro on the third monitor
A lot of the stuff by the same artist is more mature/sexual but this piece is significantly less so. This could have been rated T because although there is a lack of cover from clothes, the image is not specifically sexual or anything.
Again, it really depends on the person viewing the art.
Overload
By ImPage
Rated M
This animation is so smooth I love it
This could have been T-rated, it is slightly suggestive and the character has less than a complete cover of clothing and the animation is of shooting some shotgun shells, but it doesn't have any explicit gore, sexual imagery, etc and so it is definitely on the boundary between the two ratings.
Citrus🍊
By DeeDotNG
Rated M
This is a really cute artwork :7
Again with the trend of "not super covered up but not particularly sexual."
It's easy to imagine this being rated M or T.
Fun fact about this image: the first time I tried to zoom in on it on my phone, it crashed my entire phone. I haven't been able to recreate that since then, I have no idea why it happened.
Vintage Lingerie by EmilyRose420
Rated A
I like the hair, it's very floofy
I think that this is right on the edge between M and A. While the outfits are see-through, there are sparkles acting as censors. If the reference images weren't included I would say this definitely could easily have been M-rated, but the reference images are more showy than the actual art, so it makes sense for it to be A-rated. There are also tons of M-rated artworks that are more explicit than this, but again, artists have different ideas of how explicit it can be before it crosses the line between M and A.
That's all of the art in the playlist!
Something I learned while finding art to use as examples for this is that it's a lot easier to find art rated on the higher end of what it could be than art rated on the lower end. It could also just be I am on the wrong side of Newgrounds but if not I think that is an interesting discovery.
I hope this was informative or entertaining or something beneficial to your life because it took me 5 hours to think and write up all of this post lol
If you guys want to talk about stuff I said here, share cool art in age rating limbo, or ask me questions I will try and reply to your comments on this post.
Thanks to switzrr and ErasmusMagnus for answering my question on the Where is / How to / Help! forum, and thank you for reading this post! Or however much of it you read before going to the end lol
11,797 characters of text :7
