Breath Play Teases - Safety Notice

[seraph0x]

Since a recent TOTM nominee tease employs breath play, I'd like to remind everybody that safety is extremely important with this kind of play and we will remove teases and possibly ban authors based on unsafe instructions.

Allowable content:

Instructions to hold your breath or put your hands over your mouth/nose are generally ok. It's recommended that you include a disclaimer on the first page advising viewers with heart or respiratory problems not to attempt the tease. You are responsible for your teases and the safety thereof - you should not rely on our opinions. When in doubt err on the side of caution.

ABSOLUTELY NOT OK AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS:

- Breath control using tools such as rope, tape or bags. Breath control can lead very suddenly and unexpectedly to unconsciousness. If some external implement continues to restrict breathing at that point, death is almost certainly the result. Lots of people die this way every year.

- Self-strangulation / pressure to the neck. This is very, very dangerous also, because people assume that they will be able to breathe again once the pressure is removed. However the neck is very susceptible to injury which can then quickly become life-threatening.

If your tease contains anything highly dangerous like the aforementioned, it will be deleted and you may get banned without warning.

Fantasy exemption:

You may write more extreme teases if it's purely a fantasy tease, i.e. not something people will actually carry out. However to qualify for this exemption, we must be convinced that nobody will mistake the tease for an instructional tease. We will judge this on a case by case basis and reserve the right to remove your tease if we are not completely satisfied that people will not carry out the tease.

If you are writing a fantasy tease, we recommend that you:

• avoid the conversational tone, i.e. talking to the viewer
• include a disclaimer at the beginning that the tease is pure fantasy/dangerous and should not be carried out
• make the actions impossible/difficult to reenact, for example by describing actions in the context of partner play that can't be performed alone.

In general:

Always be aware of the inherent danger of manipulating one of the body's most basic survival functions.

We take a pragmatic approach in that breath play is a very common fetish, so it is something people will do either way, so we'd rather provide tips on safer ways of approaching it. However, this does not eliminate the risk entirely, so know your limits and always, always err on the side of caution.

[SexualChoc]

Breathing is something that is vital to all humans.
anyone not breathing.. receiving No oxygen.. for more than 30 sec is in extreme danger.
medical aide such as emergency services is required if you stop breathing.

While this is a sexual fetish.
it is one that can be FATAL!
as in.. DEAD !!!


like all risky bondage situations
I do not recommend even attempting any objects (such as rope,tape, plastic..)
without some one else present for safety.. preferably some one trained to do CPR or other licence resuscitation.

remember always have TWo ways out of any situation that is "risky"

[Nezhul]

well there's quite a bit of unsafe stuff on the site, not only a breathplay. I usually see teases that can lead to any kind of injury including fatal. A lot of ball-busting teases can actually lead to injury for the balls if carried out witn a special anxiety.
Maybe there's a way to include a disclaimer as the first page of EVERY normal and nyx tease, if you are worried?

[janmb]

Actually Nez has a very good point here - a standard milovana disclaimer, while maybe suffering from being soon enough ignored by most users, would be a good idea to ensure awareness in each case and not leave it to the author to remember or judge the necessity of a warning.

Some authors are very good at this and make huge disclaimers themselves, others do not. And on the other hand you also have a few posters and authors who over-react and exaggerate just about anything in the world.

[les]

I agree that some teases are inherently more dangerous than others.
In general but not in all cases any tease that use purely your own body are mostly safe.



Solo Teases, games, Thrills
Using Electricity, Liquids, Ligatures, Hoods, Restraints, Constraints, Gags, Locks and other Objects or Devices
Not safe.


This is a start for others to build on.

Remember Usain Bolt and Mo Farah may be fast enough to save themselves.

I doubt you or I are.

[Nezhul]

Even if it will be ignored and instantly clicked by - the fact that it APPEARS even for a second - will work as intended. It will not only give the site a legal reason to turn away all possible claims like "I hit mu dick with a sledgehammer as instructed and now I have to wear diapers, abd Milovana!". It will also induse awareness of your actions and will remind you of that awareness every time you see a tease.

les: Only stroking/edging/cross-dressing is purely safe, and even THAT may be dangerous, say, for epileptic people. Kinks like anal play are safe as long as you use a special toy designed for it and not elephant-sized too. But things like CBT are unsafe in most cases by default. Noone will die of a nipple-clamp, of course, but when it comes to hitting yourself or applying any pain to sensitive stuff - you are already risking your lealth. A well-placed hit to the balls, even without an aforesaid sledgehammer, may cause any kind of complications. Using unspecified aggressive substances like toothpaste or hot sause may also cause burns, even series ones, and it's EVERYWHERE. I'm sure I'v seen a tease a year ago that prompted you to go ahead and cut off your balls (dick? dont remember) in case of failure. What chances are some unbalanced or sick person reads that? Not hudge, but there are. And of course my all-time favourite - stroking with a sandpaper. Oh yes, I can imagine that may leave marks FOR LIFE.
Or what about public humiliation? Some things suggested may take you to a police department easily.
Bondage? I'v seen a few suggestions that may leave you really helpless in case something goes wrong.

BDSM is a dangerous stuff BY DEFAULT.

[les]

Teases could have the disclaimer explained with "Mistress Picture" at the start of tease.

Can't think of name of picture with text.

[SexualChoc]

life itself is a risk.
We already HAVE some standard normal risk messages around here on milovana..

http://www.milovana.com/pages/tos.php

since seraph0x did the original post
I put in my own take on breath play.

I am not going to even pretend I understand.. Why someone would want to hold their breath
yes I have heard "it makes things more intense"

Cerebral hypoxia occurs when there is not enough oxygen getting to the brain. The brain needs a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients to function.

Cerebral hypoxia refers to the outer part of the brain, an area called the cerebral hemisphere. However, the term is often used to refer to a lack of oxygen supply to the entire brain.
In cerebral hypoxia, sometimes only the oxygen supply is interrupted. This can be caused by:
....
Pressure on (compression) the windpipe (trachea)
Strangulation
...
Cerebral hypoxia is an emergency condition that need to be treated right away. The sooner the oxygen supply is restored to the brain, the lower the risk of severe brain damage and death.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 001435.htm

[seraph0x]

I'm worried that a generic disclaimer will discourage authors from providing a specific disclaimer - the logic being that there is a disclaimer already. You also don't want to overload people with disclaimers because it makes it harder for them to distinguish genuine warnings of real danger from legalese.

The tease-specific disclaimers are the ones that may actually make a difference, precisely because you don't see them often. It makes you go - wait a second - I better watch out on this one.

If you see a tease you think is dangerous - PM the author, ask them to add a disclaimer. If they refuse and the tease is really dangerous, PM us and we'll ask them to add one or in extreme cases even edit or delete the tease ourselves.

Life is a paradox of risk. If you take risks you might lose things or die. If you never take risks, life will pass you by and you'll be dead anyway. The trick is choosing things with a high reward and a low risk. I think compared to a lot of other outlets for kinky-minded solo play, teases are already somewhat safer. Just the fact the there is an author who has thought about it before you is one more person sanity checking than if you just come up with your own experiments. And then there are hundreds of other viewers who will spam my inbox if a tease is particularly dangerous.

What we could still improve on is providing more and better information for people to make informed choices. The issue is that we aren't doctors and there is always a danger of repeating misinformation if you just pull it off the Internet. Also there is always the danger that people will overly rely on our guidelines and rules of thumb and switch off their own brains.

In terms of providing safety information I don't think we can do any better as laymen than Alison has done on the Urge. A lot of articles provide safety notices, e.g. Amyl Nitrate (Poppers)

So if we want to provide relevant safety information, I think the best way to do that systematically would be to:

• Improve the information on the Urge
• Make this information available on teases where it is relevant

Does anybody know websites dedicated to kink safety, especially wrt solo play? If so, this would be a good place to start collecting some of those links.

To get back to the idea of a generic disclaimer - I've been planning for a while to add a "Tease details" page in front of every tease. I.e. when you click on a tease, it doesn't start right away, but rather you get to a page where you can see the details about the tease again. That page could fit some basic wording to remind people that teases are user-submitted, i.e. not reviewed by any sort of medical expert and to use their best judgement and the appropriate caution and that if they re-enact them, they do so at their own risk.

[janmb]

I'm worried that a generic disclaimer will discourage authors from providing a specific disclaimer - the logic being that there is a disclaimer already. You also don't want to overload people with disclaimers because it makes it harder for them to distinguish genuine warnings of real danger from legalese.

The tease-specific disclaimers are the ones that may actually make a difference, precisely because you don't see them often. It makes you go - wait a second - I better watch out on this one.

Good points indeed.

And in any case will a standard disclaimer always suffer from the cry wolf syndrome - soon ignored by all, just like any EULA or TOS you accept on autopilot (yes, people do that all the time)

[supermokkori]

I'm worried that a generic disclaimer will discourage authors from providing a specific disclaimer - the logic being that there is a disclaimer already. You also don't want to overload people with disclaimers because it makes it harder for them to distinguish genuine warnings of real danger from legalese.

The tease-specific disclaimers are the ones that may actually make a difference, precisely because you don't see them often. It makes you go - wait a second - I better watch out on this one.

Agreed. I'm sure i'm not the first to admit that I've never read the TOS of Milovana - having an overall blanket disclaimer regarding safety of teases will likely be ignored for the most part. If you see a disclaimer (whether in the body of the description of the tease or within the first few pages of the tease) right before you begin a tease, that will DEFINITELY get your attention and give you that moment of "uh oh, should I be doing this tease?"

If you see a tease you think is dangerous - PM the author, ask them to add a disclaimer. If they refuse and the tease is really dangerous, PM us and we'll ask them to add one or in extreme cases even edit or delete the tease ourselves.

Probably the way we should be going about this and it's good to have more people giving feedback anyway. Not just for breath play teases, but any tease that may cause some type of pain or possibly be unsanitary to attempt as well.

To get back to the idea of a generic disclaimer - I've been planning for a while to add a "Tease details" page in front of every tease. I.e. when you click on a tease, it doesn't start right away, but rather you get to a page where you can see the details about the tease again. That page could fit some basic wording to remind people that teases are user-submitted, i.e. not reviewed by any sort of medical expert and to use their best judgement and the appropriate caution and that if they re-enact them, they do so at their own risk.

I like the idea of reshowing the "tease details" again in the front of every tease - for FlashTeases, that could probably be done when the FlashTease loads up (you know, with the dramatic gong plays with title of the tease).

[Nezhul]

I'm worried that a generic disclaimer will discourage authors from providing a specific disclaimer

It is a point, however some authors will never even visit this forum, let alone an unsticky thread that will drop down in a few days. And someone will not put a disclaimer even after reading this. And you can't overlook everything.