finally a decent discussion thread again... been too long since that in this section...

well, the 18+ tag can be interpreted in many ways...

First of all, there's that obvious and simple bit about featuring mature themes. the basic definition, so to speak.

but what are mature themes? Is it just smutty playtime? Or does include things like brutal slaughter, rough violence, soul-wrenching horror and such?

If you're gonna look at it from the sexual perspective only, then it can be a misleading tag. Why, you might ask? Well, the sexual aspect of it should be based around "age of consent" which is the age people in a given area are considered old enough to be able to give proper consent to their partner(s) when engaging in sexual activity. However, the number for that around the world varies from country to country, or even internally in individual countries. some places have it as low as 12, others as high as 19. (see [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Age_of_Consent_-_Global.svg/940px-Age_of_Consent_-_Global.svg.png]this map[/url] for more details. [sub]light yellow is 12, light to dark blue is 13-16, dark yellow 17, light green 18, dark green 19, orange varies internally, pink requires marriage for consent, gray is missing data)[/sub]

For obvious reasons, with how much that varies, one can't find a single number that is "right", not legally. Going for what feels [i]comfortable[/i] to participants, it is almost as hard, as people tend to reflect that based on their own age. Not to mention, people mature at different rates. People who are well above eighteen might easily have other parameters for considering people properly mature, and there's lots of 12-13-year olds who think they're very mature.

in the end, an arbitrary number is easier to deal with. If you go for [u]age of Majority[/u] instead, the numbers vary from "up to fifteen" (one country) to twenty-one (13 countries plus parts of US). But the number in this tag, 18, includes 129 different countries (or parts thereof), which is a pretty significant portion of the world.

However Age of Majority is not just related to sexual interaction. its related to all sorts of other legal factors. Therefore, the tag too reflects that based on its label, both if one interprets the legal stuff the way we do, and if one is going to use the majority of the world for it.

Later on, if the system for hiding 18+-tagged RPs from the sight of those whose ages are not "verified" (however that will be done is another discussion entirely), it could be worth considering having a separate tag for the players who most of all want to RP sexual interactions, and for those who simply desire to explore other themes that need a certain emotional maturity. But so long as the system to hide anything based on tag is not yet coded, having a single tag for anything that requires maturity is sufficient.