Many many years ago I started my adventures on the internet when Yahoo & MSN groups where in their prime avatars where often seen as a bit of fun and where often quite jokey. Some sites I remember only had cartoon style avatars they would let you select from a list they had. Others would let you post anything legal, some would be a little more restrained but no one really cared if you where not on the avatar pic.
Over the years various sites have restricted what is acceptable often citing copyright law, my first avatar here would fall foul of that, it being an image of the cartoon character Dick Dastardly. Fair do's there but as the more do's and don't that keep being applied I'm starting to question the point of having avatars.