Yesterday we published an article entitled ‘Rumour Control: Zac Efron to Play Spider-Man?’. This article prompted a complaint from the parent of one of our younger readers:
“When did HeyUGuys have to turn to swearing in there articles, I disaprove as my 12 year old son reads your site and took a fond use of “b——s” after Reading it. Thankyou….”
First off, we would like to publicly and unreservedly apologise to any readers for any offence caused by the language used in the article.
Up until this point we have not had a formal editorial policy with regard to language or sentiments likely to cause offence.
Informally our contributors generally follow the rule that the first paragraph (the one that features on the front page) is to be ‘clean’, and that profanity should never be used simply for shock value.
In the case of the offending article, the author chose to use particular words and phrases because he felt that they were essential to getting the meaning and tone of the article. Upon reflection we agree, and stand by our contributor and his post.
That said, this incident has given us an opportunity to reflect, and we have decided to formalise our editorial policy. Shortly, this will be permanently available to view in the ‘About Us’ section of the site.
If you have any comments about this stance please feel free to post below, or to e-mail us: mouthoff@heyuguys.co.uk.
