First - young kids in an SI forum by nature aren't often that robust that they are going to offer an opinion of the status quo that is contrary to what the obvious trend has been - especially when you ask the question while simultaneously saying you don't think there is a problem. It's a loaded question from the start.
Second - what other websites would a person compare RYL to considering that young teens here get asked to publicise RYL in their schools because its supposed to be the face and voice of self-injurers? Also - how many of these other sites can have suicidal or hurting teens where the forum focus needs to be more attentive and responsible? With RYL being a large and well known forum with a supposedly serious message/intent, I don't see that many feasible comparisons with other forums. RYL is the forum being suggested to kids as a resource in major UK papers. There is no virtue in saying RYL might read like 100 other forums because it shouldn't. The web is full of forums for anything people want and RYL would be delinquent to mimic them to the detriment of its primary focus. RYL shouldn't look like MTV forums. A Google search of "felching" should show a path to RYL General forum posts (and next to thread from a 12 yr old describing how they learned to ride a bike that day - bizarre!)
Third - a major issue is not just what the kids think - or even just what their parents/schools think (those are obvious if neglected concerns) - but what less savory people would think if they see RYL as an inviting place to pursue their appetites. There has always been sex topics and posts at RYL - and people who related to sexual things in their way. If people were attracted to Rock Cornish Game Hens nobody cared. But - these topics and posts seemed in line with a general curiosity and need to discuss issues no matter if they be personal, social etc. Such posts and discussions appeared and went away naturally - never seeking to tip the balance of a forum into a constant (and pronounced) preoccupation with sex or potty brain. Anyone seeking to post at RYL just for sex kicks would have eventually stood out. That's been less true the last 7 months, and people have been joining RYL and not even posting about SI but do get right into the sex stuff.
MOST egregious is people with one or two posts coming into General and asking for people of a sexual persuasion to identify themselves and/or make contact with no resistance from staff (but if people ask for a penpal they get cut off - and rightly so). That sort of things sends a VERY bad message to the web and no political correctness can excuse it where prudent people are concerned. It's just careless administration no matter if it be by design, intimidation or whatever.
Fourth, there are a dozen or so people who while quite charming personally I can only describe as sexual obsessives when it comes to threads. People can make the most benign and innocent threads and yet there will be a handful of people who will regularly and gratuitously turn it into sexual things without any regard to content of thread or original posters intent. There are also girls who post their pics in photo forum and get comments they don't always appreciate. This has been going on a long time and in dozens of threads. Some of these threads got locked/removed for the reasons stated above but the people involved just keep at it (and I would have to blame staff for that more than the people). People can make a thread about the price of apples and at anytime it can turn into 3 pages of the same small group addressing each other with pointless sexual repartee that just jumps from one thread to another, from one forum to another. Here is a thread that could have been half decent but couldn't get past one page withour getting crapped up (it usually takes to page 2 or 3):
http://recoveryourlife.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=8046
That's not the worst example by far (and I like the people there for the most part) just the most recent I read. I know many people familiar with the forums know exactly what I am talking about. Often times the people warping the thread will even say how they are "again" warping a thread - so I have to say its something staff just lets happen and I think some people/topics get special "allowances" that do harm to the overall health of the forums and its causes. I have seen that as General was allowed to go to seed there has been a parallel decline in the vitality of the more SI oriented forums. I have seen people more (relatively) focused and thoughtful than average recede into the background (if they come at all anymore) with the more sophomoric and prurient attitudes swelling to fill the void. This is how a forum tips from a healthy/thoughtful core to a more wayward one. A "historical" issue with RYL, is that a small group of people left to their own devices can often take RYL places it doesn't need to go. In that sense recent problems aren't new as much as newfangled. It's the downfall of many psychology sites that small groups seeking acceptance/recognition for their dysfunctions get even footing with much larger groups that aren't pushy and get knocked to the side.
I think part of the problem is that some people feel comfy with Harley and staff personally and go about their whims without regard to overall effects/ appearances (this has happened in the past). There are people who would not sit down to dinner with a family and talk about "felching...anal babies or sex with holes in skulls" but somehow they have no probs doing it in general in front of thousands in a General forum that gets routinely scrutinised by parents, teachers, health pros and unsavory sorts alike. I know there are people who will minimise such things, and that would be fine if they were incidental but they have been part of a coarser trend spanning some months now.
In the years I have been at RYL all sorts of people and topics had their place here. RYL was neither "pro" or "anti" and that was the beauty of it. The sum was always greater then the parts that way. It could be a place where people could be themselves and not have to live out their label - and/or make others live out their label with them. I can say that people have been changing that with some intent ( and in the forum that should be least subject to it). That said, I have found administration to be lax to the point that it often looks like nobody is in charge. Even tattoo/sex questions are meant to go in General Advice but they keep showing up in General and getting left there even when some mods are around. My point is larger than any incident. RYL broadcasts its somehow sleepwalking. I know I don't make friends saying that but more than ever I fear seeing RYL being in some awful news article someday and that would be sorrowful for people who I know mean well but can be "too nice".
Sorry this is long and that I am not 13 but I don't see where asking kids if they should be allowed to talk about "adult" issues and sex is really the way to frame the problem. They always could talk about those things here. The larger issue is it prudent to let forums go sophomorically raunchy and gratuitously sexual (and lax on protocols) just because a smaller group is compelled that way and meekly patronised for same. RYL is a beautiful site physically, and it has sometimes had a healthful core other sites couldn't mimic but for awhile now I have seen the place shooting itself in the foot with spectacular feats of good intentions going awry and curious abandon for protocols large and small. I have seen "erosion" of good people and good will over small things allowed to go on endlessly and I do wonder if RYL hasn't seen its best days. I would hope not of course. I say what I know others would like to but feel shy.