The article didn't say anything about her mental health and we don't even know how these charges will hold up in court. So all of this is speculation. To me from what is there it sounds like a terrible accident while live and IF the viewer had any sense of real information about her to know where to begin to give her help.
But it made me start to think about the Michelle Carter case and how she was sent to jail for egging on her boyfriend to kill himself with completely understand the seriousness of his mental state. Then I was thinking about Britney Spears and how she is under legal guardianship and isn't allowed to make business decisions for herself legally.
It started to ask myself legally could Britney Spear's cam and if something happened to affect her mental state while camming who's to blame?
Then I asked. If a member is requesting a fantasy that unknowing to them has psychological impact on the model but that model is agreeing to it is she victimizing herself or is the unknowing member responsible.
Then I was thinking about reasons why the victim narrative around models keeps renewing and how much situations like this factor into that. 'All members are evil and abuse me even though I at no point said no or set limits'.
I simplied the thing and combines all these things which is blame. If models have control of their cam environment why are members constantly blamed for things? If it ever came to members being libel for a model's actions what would that mean for the sites. So I brought up the discussion.
The odd part about this so far is that from the responses hiding your illness if more important that getting help or making sure it's diagnosed correctly which was mind blowing to me. I went to a therapist for many years to work through my depression and other quirks and problems and by other realms of healthcare didn't cost all that much. I just see too much people in general diagnosing themselves with serious mental issues and feeling like it's something 'special' or positive. Maybe I'll reading too much twitter where saying you have a serious problem and people want to hand out trophies.
To me the only way that youtube streamer Etika would had been alive today is if his family could had involuntary committed him but they couldn't because they could never get him professionally diagnosed. It's heartbreaking to think taking someone's freedom away might had been the only way to save him.
Honestly... It is legit way way WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY harder to have someone declared incapable of making their own legal decisions than you might imagine. Believe me. I spent years watching a close family member commit slow suicide in the worst possible way and although they were clearly VERY, VERY, VERY mentally unwell, they were still a legal adult. It didn't matter what lawyers I went to or the doctors I visited - they refused to help. And my family member died because of it. So.... It's a LOT harder than you'd think to take away someone's legal/medical rights over themselves, even when it could save their lives!
Britney Spears probably would still have legal rights over herself if she wasn't a multi-millionaire. When you have money and power, and when your Power of Attorney is fueled by greed and has thousands of dollars to throw at it, then yeah. It's a lot easier to take away someone's legal rights to make their own decisions. But for everyone else... I dunno. I've seen with my own eyes, someone very mentally unwell and very mentally unstable commit a slow suicide. And I WANTED them to lose the power to take care of themselves. And I tried, but it ain't that easy. Not for every day folk like us.
So I think it's pretty safe to assume that if a cam person is modelling, they have all legal rights over their own decisions and can legally consent or not consent. But not everyone consents to the fantasies that are dropped on us out of no where. And not everyone realizes the risks that some of these fantasies make involve, even the seemingly innocent ones (like the banana peel guy who wants girls to REALLY slip on banana peels in high heels - I'm convinced he's actually waiting for some girl to break her ankle, but that's another story).
But if we're worried about mental health - I'm still curious about your feelings on having members take that hypothetical psych evaluation test as well. You specifically state that, "If a member requesting a fantasy that unknowing to them has psychological impact on the model," - I mean... There are a handful of fantasies that I can think of that can be pretty traumatic. If you're worried about the model being mentally healthy enough to consent - are you also worried about the mental health of the people who might be jerking off to those potentially-psychologically damaging fantasies? I mean, you brought up the Michelle Carter case and her egging on her boyfriend. Clearly, he wasn't mentally well because he was suicidal. But she was clearly ALSO mentally unwell because.... she is probably a legit straight up sociopath.
So if we're worried about the mental health of models being unable to handle the potentially dark cam-fantasies, shouldn't we be just as worried about the members with those said fantasies? I mean, sure. If a model gets asked to act out a strangulation scenario in which she pretends to strangle herself and then falls limp and pretends to be dead for an additional ten minutes, as realistically as possible... Yeah, she has the power to block the person who asked. But shouldn't we ALSO be concerned about the member who jerks off to this fantasy of a beautiful dead girl, dying a violent fantasy death before his eyes? Because... I've received that fantasy request before. But I don't see anyone really asking to psych-evaluate the members. Most of them are pretty normal, with very healthy fantasies, but more than a few come to us with some pretty dark and twisted and very, very illegal fantasies.
I guess, I'd rather someone be less concerned about my battles with anxiety and more concerned with the members who want me to pretend to be ten (and not in a Little space type of way) or members who want me to scream and cry and beg to be released or the ones who want me to pretend to be dead or the ones who want me to act like I am being kidnapped and tied up in their closet and about to be violently assaulted or the ones who ask if I have a dog to perform with or the ones who send me pictures of crushed gold-fish and kittens, asking if I can do the same to other defenseless animals or the ones who want all of the details about any past traumatic assaults or the ones who tell about the dark fantasies they want to do to the young, vulnerable people around them.
Like... I've had more than my fair share of mental illness battles since I was fifteen, with various different diagnoses. If Mental Illness were a Bingo card, I've sure got a Bingo! But that doesn't mean I am not capable of making my own decisions. That doesn't mean I need someone to protect me from myself or decide that I do not have the right to work at a job that I love, a job that actually allows people with mental illnesses to thrive in ways they may not be able to if they were trying to hold down a 9-5. It doesn't matter how sad or depressed I get - working makes me feel better in every way. But do you know what would REAAAAAALLLLY help my mental health? Not having to interact with predators and sick jerkfaces. Because even with the block button, you can't erase the words from your head or the images they send or the sound of their voice as they relish in the thought of hurting others. The block isn't quick enough for that. And those are the moments that haunt me, and I would give anything to NOT know about the true darkness that lies within some people.
I am not trying to say that all members are evil because that couldn't be further from the truth. There are tens of thousands of amazing members out there. I have met such wonderful people through the digital adult world. I have met such kind souls, generous to a fault (and I don't mean money-wise) and I have met men with such compassion and such intelligence, I have met men who have made me laugh with their wit until my belly hurt and tears streamed from my eyes. I have met men who carried such strength, who always treated every with incredible respect. Heck, one of my regulars was a beautiful girl whose creativity never failed to inspire me to try new things and reach for new heights. I have met COUNTLESS members who have enriched my life in many, many ways and I shall always, ALWAYS be grateful for that.
But that doesn't change the fact that there are some super frightening people out there, and if we're going to be concerned with policing the mental health of adults on the internet to determine whether they can engage in adult activity... I'd really love to start there. Instead of saying, "Hey models, let's give you psych evaluations to make sure you're stable enough to handle the occasional traumatic encounter you'll have in camland", why don't we go to the members and say, "Hey, members! Let's give you psych evaluations to make sure you're not a pedophile or a rapist or a psychopath or a sociopath, and if we can determine that you WON'T traumatize models, THEN you can play!"
I mean, either way, the situation is pretty impossible to actually implement and is never going to happen, and frankly, adults are adults and deserve to make their own decisions. But if we're really going to argue about the safety of the models in regards to their mental health, and mandatory psych evaluations for the models, I think it's fair to argue for psych-tests for members tooooo. Or is the idea of members taking psych-tests more or less or equally absurd as the idea of models taking said tests?
..... 
