To give you an example. When I first was here animated gifs as your first image would still show up in the feed fully animated.

One day I'm cruising along just looking at post titles and there is a very graphic animated blow job going on.

This doesn't bother me personally, and I work from home. Yet we are trying to build a community here. Some people would be greatly offended by that being shoved in their face. We also have children.

What if it had been someone being brutally murdered as an animated gif?

It doesn't have to be just porn.

So the NSFW tag does not censor it. It creates a situation where a person voluntary clicks on REVEAL to see it. Thus, there is NO accidental or involuntary viewing. It becomes a choice.

Considering some and likely increasing amounts of people here are children and teens it is also important for that aspect.