In my story Tail-Likes, I wouldn't say that the country of Vernice is dystopic

In my story Tail-Likes, I wouldn't say that the country of Vernice is dystopic. The reason is because the government DOES care about its citizens, they're just very vain.

Like, they are kind of thoughtless and jerks, but they don't want sex trafficking of any sort. In fact, they had banned porn, snuff porn and hardcore porn especially, mainly because snuff porn and hardcore porn when introduced to children would sometimes lead to those kids watching it from a young age, getting addicted and when the snuff porn no longer gave them the feeling they were addicted to, they would go for the real thing. This is what happened to Ted Bundy and why he started raping and killing women.

He was 11 when he found the snuff porn in the trash. Snuff porn is rape and torture porn.

Thus, the country typically bans such porn because the government of Vernice actually bought Little Saint James and Great Saint James (The islands Epstein owned) kicked out all the sex traffickers because they feared the previous inhabitants may rape people, moved homeless and kids who aged out of foster care here, gave them homes, self-defense tools, jobs, and assigned roles. When it was first made, no one picked a job. If you were a firefighter, you were trained for it and because you were forced into the role, given protective gear.

They separated the islands into an independent country with close ties to The United States government, but not under it.

They are basically afraid of mass rape. This is also why they didn't feel bad about barring the residents of Tailson from having phones & such because while it was to hide them because they thought they made the country look bad, they did know that if they have no access to the internet, they have no access to snuff porn AKA rape and torture porn.

They believed this would lower sex trafficking. They also banned books that promoted rape, pedophilia, incest, or books that were BDSM and anything could be misconstrued as such.

The reason why Vernice has book bans is not because they are cruel or dystopian. They do have authoritarian elements, but these authoritarian elements are implemented by the government because the government believes that, essentially speaking, they are absolutely necessary. The reason is that a lot of homeless people and many foster kids simply didn't have jobs and didn't know how to survive in the world. There was no real way they could have just been placed on the island, put into an American-style structure, and expected to thrive. None of them even knew how to survive in the wild. If you placed them in a situation where it was like, “Oh, you guys have to hunt and fight for your food,” they would probably starve because they had absolutely no idea what to do.

So what did they do? They decided, “You know what, you guys are going to have to be given jobs.” They basically forced them into jobs and certain roles by assigning them positions. This wasn't necessarily done with punishment. There was no real punishment, but they were given jobs and roles. It was actually for the better because it helped people. They were given free homes with no rent, etc. It was actually a really good, caring country. The government is just very vain.

But why did they ban books? The reason was not because they were some kind of totalitarian government. The books they banned were often grotesque or BDSM-related books. They banned BDSM books because they believed BDSM promoted dangerous behavior. What some men got out of it was the idea that women liked being raped, had fantasies about being raped, or wanted to be raped. That is literally what some men took away from it in real life. They would actually hear men saying things like that.

Sometimes men would think that way, or children and teens would stumble across this content and not understand that it was fiction. One book that was banned was Lolita. The reason it was banned was because teenagers were reading it and didn't understand Lolita’s plight. Since Lolita’s story is written from the point of view of Humbert, the sexual abuser, younger readers sometimes didn't understand that Lolita was not supposed to be romantically interested in him. Movies and cultural references sometimes even portrayed them as romantic interests.

There were situations where people sang songs about Lolita being with a grown man at the age of twelve, such as Lolita by Lana Del Rey. Because the island had once been associated with child sex trafficking, the government decided they were not going to allow anything that might normalize it.

Many anime and manga were banned as well. The government always told the population why these things were banned. However, when people got angry and asked, “Why can't I have this book?” or “Why can't I watch this?” they often simplified the reasons in their heads. They would say things like, “They just don't want us to have fun,” or “They're just jerks,” when in reality there were clear-cut reasons that younger people did not always understand.

They banned most female romance erotica books, many fantasy books, and a lot of dystopian books because they feared these stories could promote harmful, toxic, or abusive relationships, especially if they contained sexual violence or torture themes.

They did have publishing companies, but those companies were heavily regulated. The government believed that, in modern society, some publishers tend to gravitate toward increasingly explicit or pornographic content because it sells. They worried that this could influence vulnerable readers. They knew that some people struggled with mental illness or came from tragic households and might not be able to properly process this content.

As the government once stated: many homeless individuals and foster children who aged out of the system were not raised in environments where they could clearly recognize abusive dynamics. Some of them had grown up in homes where their parents not only abused them but justified the abuse. Because of that, the government believed certain media could reinforce harmful ideas rather than challenge them.

They also openly taught children what abuse and sexual abuse were through schools and public education campaigns. The government was not dystopian, but it was very image-conscious. Officials cared a lot about how citizens presented themselves and encouraged people to look their best. There were even social expectations about appearance, although the country provided free healthcare.

Part of this focus on image came from the fact that Vernice was a new nation. They did not want outsiders to see them as a poor, unstable, or easily exploitable island country. They wanted to appear organized, safe, and respectable in the eyes of the international community.

Ultimately, they banned this type of media because they knew many foster children had experienced abuse, and in some cases abused children might later act out that trauma. This is why everyone in the country receives free mental healthcare.

Because of their history, the government refused to allow pedophilic anime, films that normalized exploitation, or movies that portrayed rape as comedic. In one foreign film, a rape scene was choreographed to appear humorous, and it was banned. The government noticed that creators who treated sexual assault as entertainment often held misogynistic views, so they banned those films.

In one movie, a scene in which a character touches someone without consent to determine their gender led to the film being restricted until the scene was removed.

Movies that promoted pedophilia or mocked male rape were also banned. This was partly because there were male victims associated with the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. The government believed it was imperative to ban media that mocked sexual assault against any gender.

Victims in the country included female victims, male victims, and survivors harmed by both male and female abusers. Many came from the foster system and had experienced abuse from different people in their lives. Because of this, the government refused to allow narratives that framed rape as revenge, humor, or entertainment.

Pedophiles and known rapists were not allowed to immigrate to the country. Prostitution was strictly banned as well. Prostitutes themselves would not be arrested; instead, law enforcement targeted pimps and traffickers.

Schools also taught the history of the country and explained the reasoning behind these laws. History classes included lessons about government programs designed to help children avoid being forced into prostitution. Sex work was not legalized because officials believed that in some countries where it was legalized, trafficking increased.

Websites associated with explicit content were also banned, including platforms such as OnlyFans and many major pornography websites.

Essentially, I like that in my stories I write unconventional stuff. Some of the things I write that are unconventional involve characters having unconventional ideologies, legitimately. It’s pretty much a flip side, but then I explain the reasons for it. One thing I like is that sometimes I’ll write things in stories that would normally be socially unacceptable, but then I’ll add an understandable reason for it, etc. And while it wouldn’t be a good idea to do in real life, I can totally understand it. But in this case, it’s actually a good idea to do in real life.

In my story, Tale Likes, the characters do not actually—well, it’s like most books aren’t banned, but some books are banned. The reason they are banned is because the government actually bought the islands. The government is called Vernice, V-E-R-N-I-C-E. This country was created when the government bought Epstein’s islands. They bought Little St. James and Great St. James. They then kicked off all the sex traffickers and the previous inhabitants, like the security and all that, and replaced them with basically homeless people and people who had aged out of foster care because the government of America wasn’t taking care of them. They thought it would be better if they just made a whole new country.

They then proceeded not to sex traffic them. They didn’t sex traffic them at all. They basically gave them self-defense training, jobs, homes, and even assigned roles when they first got there. If you were assigned the role of a firefighter, that was your job. You couldn’t pick your job when you first arrived. You were trained for it because you were placed into the role and given protective gear.

That doesn’t mean you couldn’t pursue creative endeavors. You were allowed to use the internet and other resources unless the government was trying to hide you. But other than that, you would actually be perfectly fine there.

They also have strict bans on rape pornography, etc., and will exile people if they commit acts of rape. The reason is that they don’t want those people on the island. They don’t even want them in jails on the island. They’ll just deport them back to America or wherever they came from because they can’t afford to have that on Little St. James and Great St. James due to the history of Epstein Island.