I seldom browse some of the new arts and sometimes stumble across some questionable ratings that the authors give. I was wondering if there is a detailed distinction between them; though I'm specifically looking for the between Mature and Adult. If there is a detailed breakdown, point me towards that please, because the site doesn't do a good job doing that.

From my current understanding, it goes something like:

Everyone: Non-offensive, non-suggestive content. No explicit language. Partial nudity is okay as long as it is justified and non-suggestive (such as swimsuits, with low emphasis on figure/sexual attraction).

Teens: May contain explicit language, suggestive content and mild violence. No genitalia can be shown.

The boundary between Mature and Adult in my mind goes something like this:

Mature: May contain very suggestive content. May contain nudity, as long as it is non-suggestive (of other activities such as sex). May contain mild gore.

Adult: Contains nudity or sex. Otherwise, may also have a large amount of gore(?). [Actually unsure about the gore part. I rarely see it enough to determine that, but I am guessing Excessive Gore gets Blammed more often; and I have no motivation to look through gore art and see their ratings]

I am wondering about the boundary between the two, since something like:

contains sexual intercourse, and is still rated Mature? (not to mention those undertones there that are questionable already)

I have otherwise also seen several other examples of nudity within Mature that is much more suggestive. However, this may actually be incorrect and Mature shouldn't have casual nudity either, and Everyone shouldn't have partial nudity or suggestive clothing (such as tank tops, cleavage and suggestive posing). I just want clarification so I can report these instances as required.

The upload form contains a field for rating-dependent criteria (nudity, violence, explicit audio/text, and adult themes), where for each criterion the uploader has to specify between "none", "some" and "lots". This information is then assembled into an ETMA rating, although that is not transparent to the casual viewer. Which is also why the whole process is subject to change.

The moderators have tools to change ratings, as far as I know, so if you feel something is misrated, feel free to message one of them.

99% of the time M is SFW, but sometimes it's people fucking. would be great if I could browse NG in a work-safe mode. I come here a lot to play experimental games, usually in public. so it'd be great to not have tits everywhere.

This seems pretty adult

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  Yuuko

  by feguimel

  Illustration

  15,179 Views

  (Adults Only)

As far as Newgrounds ratings go, ...

E - Worksafe. Shouldn't have anything objectionable for the vast majority of workplaces, although probably not worksafe if your workplace is a church or otherwise highly religious and with increased strictness. Cartoonish violence allowed.

T - Probably worksafe. May contain more violence and some gore but not excessive gore.

M - All the gore you want. All the violence you want as well. May contain censored nudity and/or implied sex/nudity as long as you don't actually see any genitals or female nipples in a sexual context. A nonsexual context may be allowed.

A - Full on hardcore sex as well as all the gore and violence. Anything legal goes.

So since that Shadling submission does not actually show any penises or vaginas or nipples and much of the questionable content is of an implied, although strongly implied, nature, it is rated M instead of A.

@GeoKureli gave a good example of a misrated submission. That submission by Yuuko is rated M but should be rated A as there is full nudity and in a sexual context.

Also, bikinis and such are not partial nudity. Unless maybe you live in a majority Muslim country or something. In which case you probably shouldn't be browsing Newgrounds as it's probably not legal in those countries. How puritanical do you have to be to consider bikinis nudity? Go to any beach in the US and there are people of all ages in swimsuits, including bikinis and they don't restrict this to just age 18 and up. It's considered normal.

He said suggestive clothing shouldn't be considered E. and that he's just looking for guidelines to know when he's reporting correctly. Easy there, spider.

Not exactly family friendly. I'd say it can stay at E, but it's really pushing it, since it's sexually suggestive

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  Bogue at sea

  by feguimel

  Illustration

  5,391 Views

  (Ages 13+)

If it popped up on my twitter feed while phone browsing on public trans, Id look around to see if anyone saw me looking at it.

Sorry that i keep using Feguimel as a reference, it's neat stuff

My European sensibilities would still find that non-sexual, otherwise I would agree with how you’ve classed Mature and Adult.

I’ve seen some pics with cum-filled vaginas rated M because they’re partially clothed. That’s obviously wrong.

Therefore I encourage people to have a good hard look at the ratings on their pics, and if they feel it is wrong to please fiddle with the settings accordingly. A lot of the reports are for miscategorised pieces at the moment, and many of these aren’t borderline cases.

I'd say you pretty much just made our best and most detailed breakdown yet. :) This has been talked about in the past, but so far we do lack a good guide. Most recent discussion: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1436884

I've pretty much come to the same conclusions as you have. And @NeonSpider, even more concise! Nice. Only thing I don't agree with there is your M rating guess regarding gore, as I don't think excessive gore would be simply M. Especially in a sexual context, even if it's implied or not all clearly visible. Generally I'd say any violence in a sexual context: A.

Regarding Shad's example, I suppose: no visual sexual intercourse makes it possible to rate lower? As in no genetalia. Not a focus. Not sexual either so much as just used to progress the overall story, even if he does use that particular scene as the thumb too. Definitely an edge case.

Incorrect ratings do occur all the time, so feel free to report ones you think are wrong. If you don't want to blow the whistle directly you can always reach out to a mod and ask them, they're probably pretty good at knowing what falls into what category here: https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/site-moderation

Seems like the rating's alright on that one to me. It is partial nudity, and pin-up style rather than directly sexual. If you do want to browse only SFW submissions I don't think having the M rating enabled is the best bet btw. M really isn't SFW, though I guess that depends on what kind of work you have...

I'm not really seeing the sexual context though. :/ And notice there is a veil on the most intimate part.

On this one I agree though, definitely seems like a T.