NSFW: Breaking down media censorship

Censorship has a firm grip on the way social media is used on a daily basis. Most people probably don't even notice, but it's disengaging a small yet important set of users, those that create outside the modern conventions. Many of us won't come under fire or even understand the problem, yet these artists are at the forefront of this battle for art in all its many forms. Instagram is the main culprit. Its regulations seem to satisfy sensitive minds or lazy parents willing to chuck their kids on the platform at 10 years old, but who else does it help, and at what cost?Exploring art through emotion or eroticism isn't a new concept, and many of the most groundbreaking examples have always faced a whole heap of judgment. Yes, this art can be shocking but it can also be intimate and seductive, in a way often misunderstood. One artist that knows the constraints now attached to creativity is Oh Darling [Georgia Dean], whose output is heavily inspired by sparking the conversation around sex and the negativity towards it. Her sketches of dicks, tits and quirky viewpoints on culture are something straight out of a censor's nightmare.

These so-called safety measures are hindering many artists from creating that cult-following the platform offers, leaving them no choice but to create websites of their own or edit their work to conform to these absurd rules about what is art and what is indecent. Being forced to deface work to satisfy a platform isn't right. From the outside, it might look easy - nudity is off limits - but it's far from simple to conform to this as a creator.On these sites, censorship always wins, with those who challenge it being penalised: "The erotic drawings are usually just whatever I'm thinking about at the time, whether that be down to personal experience or just a random idea that pops into my head. I don’t tend to think of censorship when creating, but it has been an issue with sharing my work. People report my illustrations featuring nudity or erotic material which results in them being removed."So where does this leave artists whose work features nudity? Well, there doesn't seem to be much leeway on the matter. It seems what Instagram's regulations are saying is either adapt to our platform or fuck off. The site has nothing to lose through such a strict policy; it's the creators who cannot be without it. It's the most accessible and cheapest way to build an audience, with a billion active users to potentially inspire with your work. What choice does the creator have but to neuter their work for the sake of likes, and where does that leave art in a heavily censored digital age? Follow Oh Darling:Instagram