The following guidelines supplement the main Curlie Guidelines, and in no way supersede them. Adult editors should become familiar with both sets of guidelines.
Generally the Adult category includes sites whose dominant theme is either:
- To appeal to the prurient interest in sex without any serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value
- The depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs in a lascivious way
- The depiction or description of sexually explicit conduct in a lascivious way (e.g. for entertainment purposes)
For our purposes, sexually explicit conduct is actual or simulated sexual intercourse, including genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex; bestiality; masturbation; consensual sadistic or masochistic acts; or lascivious exhibition of the genitals, pubic area or breasts of any person.
Specifically, the following types of site are included in the Adult category:
- Adult entertainment such as pornographic or sexually explicit image galleries.
- Sites which have sexually explicit personal advertisements or message boards.
- Sites which sell sex toys as a primary focus, or along with other merchandise intended for sale to adults only.
- Sites, which depict sex acts or sexually aroused people in graphic detail for entertainment purposes, rather than for medical or educational purposes.
- Sites that primarily contain sex stories, without substantial literary, artistic, educational, or scientific value.
- Sites which have sexually explicit images or text in advertising.
- Sites whose meta tags contain sexually explicit text, or which imply that the site contains Adult content (such as "naked pictures", "sexy nude photos", or "hot young girls").
- Sites which primarily serve to drive traffic to sites with Adult content, such as links lists or non-sexually explicit "teasers" for Adult sites.
- Sites, which contain a mixture of adult content (as defined above) and non-adult content.
When evaluating a submission, the sites to which it links, via links pages or banner advertisements for example, should not be the sole factor in your decision as to whether or not it should be included. For instance, a non-adult site (as determined by the points given above) with a "tame" banner advertisement that links to a pornographic site can be listed outside Adult.
The Adult category is designed for sites that present sexually explicit material in a manner that is inappropriate for children. It's a unique category, as it is not accessible from the front page of Curlie, and every page in the Adult hierarchy is labeled with a PICS tag to prevent appropriately configured browsers from accessing these links. The Curlie search feature is designed to prevent inadvertent exposure to content in the Adult area: searches of "the entire directory" will not return results from within Adult unless they are started from a page inside the Adult area or include one of a standard list of clearly Adult keywords.
Adult vs. Other Categories:
The Adult category is for sexually explicit content and pornographic material as defined above. It is not to be used as a hiding place for other types of material that one may find offensive, distasteful, or inappropriate for people under age 18. Sites specifically targeted to people under age 18 are listed in the Kids and Teens directory. The remaining areas of Curlie are intended for a general audience, and attempt to be all-inclusive in their topical coverage. There are some Adult topics that bleed over into the main directory, and many sites that don't entirely fit our definition of "Adult".
Sites that would be listed in the main directory rather than in Adult include, but are not limited to:
- Sites covering human sexuality whose dominant theme is to educate and inform.
- Sites covering human sexuality whose dominant the theme is the provision of information that has literary, artistic, political and scientific value.
- Sites covering a societal or lifestyle issue and/or a support or advice group of sorts that do not contain sexually explicit or pornographic material.
- Sites with adult warning pages that do not contain sexually explicit or pornographic material (e.g. https://www.mcewans.co.uk/ ) and where you have to be a certain age to enter the site or to interact with its contents (e.g. sweepstakes sites).
- Sites whose dominant theme is to provide non-sexually explicit material but may contain links to Adult material. For example, Yahoo or Curlie would contain links to Adult content, but their URLs would not be listed in Adult.
- Sites that include sexually suggestive, risqué material, but not sexually explicit material as defined above (e.g. romance/erotica writing, swimsuit issues of sports magazines, etc.).
Links and Banners
Sites that exist to drive traffic to Adult sites should be listed in Adult. Sites that contain sexually explicit banner and sidebar ads should also be listed in Adult. However, sites that do not exist to drive traffic to adult sites, but may include non-sexually explicit points to adult sites, may be listed outside the Adult category. When you can't decide if an otherwise non-adult site containing adult links and banners should be listed in Adult or not, ask the question: "would this organization take the time and effort to make this web site available if they were not profiting off of the adult links and banners" -- if the answer is "no" then the site is a likely candidate for the Adult category.
Further Information
All Adult editors should become thoroughly familiar with the general Curlie Guidelines, since the rules there also apply in Adult. There is also an Adult FAQ, which gives some general, helpful advice, and is particularly helpful to new Adult editors. The FAQ was prepared by fellow Adult editors, but does not necessarily represent official Curlie editorial policy.