Then again how does the Harry Potter sites handle it, It would surprise me if this kind of problem didn’t dwarf yours, but perhaps they are just more thick-skinned and inclined to take the extra work.
The HP fandom is so monstrously huge that it doesn't do anything any one way. Trying to get even one small corner of it to agree on something is like trying to herd cats.
Yes, there are whole HP sites devoted to adult fics. Many of these sprang up in the wake of Fanfiction.net's decision to ban NC-17 material some years back, and security at these sites tightened up somewhat further after a flurry of C&D letters were sent on behalf of JK Rowling and Warner Bros. to various sites that housed explicit material.
That said, there are also plenty of HP archives where pgfic and nfic are mixed. Some use the "I am over 18" button for fics of higher ratings, and some don't. Some use the same system in use here, where you have to write specifically and request a password or authorization. Some don't have any security beyond an old-fashioned rating and the occasional content warning. And then there are Yahoo Groups and LiveJournal and a zillion message boards, all of which are maintained by different people with different ideas about what constitutes adult material and what, if anything, should be done to protect the fandom's minor readers from it.
Personally, I find the L&C fandom's relative consensus on the subject very refreshing
Perhaps the G and Nfic groups in this community are to small to split and this forces them to compromise to a greater degree.
The nfic already has its own archive for completed stories, which is effectively the same thing as the "adult" archives in the HP fandom. Yes, you do have to have a password, but you also have to have one to get into many of the HP archives, as well as similar archives I've encountered in other fandoms.
What I wondered was why you went further to ensure this then other fanfic sites
I don't know what other fanfiction you read, and it is certainly true that different fandoms handle things differently, but in my experience, there just isn't anything about the system here that is especially unusual or noteworthy. I can think of five fandoms off the top of my head where I've had to send off for passwords to access adult material. I think it has less to do with the actual content and more to do with the culture of that particular fandom. Some are simply more conservative than others; I would even venture to guess (since I certainly can't prove it) that the more conservative (vanilla) the content of the stories, the more
likely the fandom is to take an aggressive approach to protecting minors from adult material. The Jane Austen fandom, which I referenced earlier, is one that will surely never see a C&D letter since the canon is in the public domain, but the vast majority of the adult fic is password protected. It is simply the preference of the fandom that it be handled that way.
Sorry if I've rambled on - it's an interesting discussion
Caroline
