Hi all! Wondering if anyone has experience with, or knows what the site's policy is, about fetish origin stories in chat/messaging. In other forums I've participated in, these discussions are sometimes banned because they often involve individuals under age 18.

Specifically, I had a user message me about an under age 18 origin story (very benign: I was under 18, I saw someone get slimed, I realized I was into it). Out of abundance of caution, I didn't respond to the message. Should I go a step further and report/block?

I would guess as long as you don't actually mention age, but something more along the lines of "I used to like this game show" or "I saw someone get slimed a few years ago" that should keep it pretty safe, but I'm also not a moderator here.

This is a great question and it's the most nuanced rule we have. The clearest way I can put it is that we want to be free to share the origin stories that resulted in us enjoying this fetish later in life, while being very careful to not sexualize the story itself. That means granular details are unnecessary and need to be left out, not retold like a story that should be fantasized about now as adults. Maybe it shouldn't be a whole "story" at all, but just a recalling of a generic event just as you described.

Our TOS says, "We allow reasonable discussion about the impact a fetish might have had during the formative years, but we cannot allow for the actual events to be described salaciously." You can always contact me on the Contact page if you want to run something by me before you post or message it.

Avoid specifics. I would say use vague terms like when I was younger VS when I was a kid. I know there have been whole discussions on here before about this very topic where people talked about their first introduction to WAM and things. There are a few stories in the blogs and stories sections where people have talked about their history with WAM.