Should we insititute an Amber alert system for Orgers under the age of 16?
I'm being serious (for once), in recent weeks i have seen an upsurge of very young people frequenting this website.

I have also seen email addresses, images and other private info being offered up...now while i accept it's all in the "Org" spirit i am somewhat concerned, the reality is their ARE freaks out there and while it's not upto the mods to babysit certain Orgers i feel there is the potential for an issue to arise.

Chat rooms are especially touchy, most of us who chat are adults and enagage in sometimes very adult discussion, most times it's just fooling about but the topics can be very sexual in nature and mature themes.

To my mind not suitable for the younger Orgers, no doubt these same Orgers are probably doing and saying alot worse in real life then we were at 15-16 etc., none the less from a purely moral and legal standpoint...is The Org just crusin for a brusin?

I'm not the morality police by a long shot knowing my own history with Prince, but some long time chatters have discussed this before and we're self censoring, as in watching what we're saying etc., which is probably not a bad thing in of itself.

But as Maude Flanders said...won't somebody think of the children!

i think it's up to parents to control what their kid sees/does on the internet.

when i came here some of the emoticons were semi-scandalous to me

In a prefect world, yes...but these days parents like to blame others for their parental failings, which usually results in a lawsuit.

To quote Boston Legal:

Alan: Denny, you're an American! What does any true red-white-and-blue American do when he's been wronged? Or even slightly put out for that matter?
Denny: We sue!

i always thought you had to be over 18 officially to be a member...

has this changed?

evenstar3 said:

Spookymuffin said:

you're NOT underage!

...anymore.

I moderate in the chat room, which is all the time

From my many years experience of moderating in the chat room, when I know or someone lets me know there is an underager in the chat room I have made it known to the entire room of chatters that: "there is an underager in the room (handle of underager - and age) ." This usually gets adult chatters to change the convo to another topic if the convo is about raunchy sex, or convo not suitable for underager. Sometimes an underager will get defensive and angry because they have been discovered. I then state to the underager as well as the chat room that is it my responsibility to let adult chatters know when an underager is present in the room. Adult chatters appreciate it when they are made aware. There are chatters as young as 12 years old even.

And then there are underagers who sometimes get disrespectful/mouthy to adults in the room, and then I have to explain to underager that these are adults and you have to show respect. And sometimes there have been underagers who tell the adults to carry on with the discussion on sex as they don't mind, or there are underagers who declare that they are "mature" for their age to be involved in such a conversation about sex or adult convo.

There are those that are pervs that just come into the chat room who will only prey on underagers. And then, of course, there are the trolls who come in to start trouble. Sometimes trolls are adults or underagers.

It definately is the parents responsibility to be aware and to monitor their child(ren) on the internet. If a situation arises in the chat room, then it will be dealt with. If an underager is being approached by a perv, it is up to the underager to come forward to disclose the information. Some do not because they are afraid.

The Org cannot be held responsible for the underager. The Org is not their parent(s). The parent who owns that computer being used by the underager is the one who should be held accountable to monitor and censor the underagers access to sites on the net.


Oh and btw Moving to site discussion

Does it really work?

Orger A:
Orger B:

luv4u:Beware, there is an underager in the room

Orger A:
Orger B:

PANDURITO said:

evenstar3 said:

liberation said:

we can't forget what it was like to be 14 and that we did not appreciate being mollycoddled and neither would these people.
that being said, the org has shown/taught me things in my 30's that i'm not sure that anyone needs to know!

so. we know there are young people here.
if you wouldn't have certain explicit discussions
with a 14 year old in the room in real life...
perhaps it should measure your response here as well.

just food for thought.

liberation said:

i don't know HOW many times i've told him "McMeekle, please! tone it down a bit you don't know who might be listening"

XxAxX said:

FatherMcMeekle doesn't behave very well?? I find it hard to believe he'd toss his vows aside and care to the wind and risk his entire ministry career.....

emm said:

Indeed, i accept your point about preaching to the youngins, i didn't like it when i was 15 either.

I don't think it would hurt to put a blurb in the "Acceptance of Terms" that adult content exists on the site and one should be 18 to participate. Only because predators and pedophiles are out there. If a parent is screening the site info, there it is in black and white.
It doesn't prevent anyone from becoming a member. It's simply a true statement and good for community service.

Then again, if someone is under the age of 18 are they legally responsible for signing or agreeing to anything without a parent signature/consent?
Maybe if it's just a warning thrown in with site FAQs or in rules of forum discussion?
For surgical consents one has to be 18 to sign. A parent or legal guardian has to sign for them. An underage parent, say 16, can sign consents for their child but not for themselves. An emancipated minor can sign their own consent.
Boy, this could be a can of worms.....
[Edited 5/6/07 14:26pm]

xplnyrslf said:

omg!

they should not let kids under 13 have an account, i think there is a federal law that bans web sites from taking personal info from kids under 13

This topic comes up all too frequently in chat.

It's been suggested that we have two chat rooms one for 18 and older and one for 18 and younger. I don't know how much that would help.

I'm definately one that watches what I say when underage chatters are around. I have a 14 year old daughter and wouldn't want her reading what we chat about sometimes.

I know that does hurt some chatters' feelings, but kids don't always need to hear what adults are chatting about and I honestly don't think kids under the age of 18 should be in the chat room.

It's not possible to police this, and the org wouldn't want to be in that business anyway.

If I believe that an orger is underage, I do watch what I say to them (to cover my own ass, really), but I think that's up to us as individuals. And we cannot be expected to keep track of the age of every person on the site.

I agree that there should be an "adult content" warning at signup, but christ, this is prince.org. Not much is said on this site that is more explicit than what Prince has said in his lyrics.

How in the world do you verify what somebody's age is?

A minor won't tell his/her age when it limits his/her priviledges.

Tremolina said:

There are many indicators that I know of that reveals that information

HereToRockYourWorld said:

I've never participated in the chat room and am under the impression that's what's x rated. There isn't anything in the open forums that I consider a problem. I can't imagine a 13 year old would be interested in a Prince site.

I'm in agreement with Lib on this one, and think it's a good discussion to be having, and timely. I have also been aware that there seem to be some very young members here, and am concerned about some of the things they are seeing.

I can't remember whether I was asked for my DOB when I joined the Org, but I don't see how we know the real ages of anyone on here, unless they reveal them to us.

I'm fairly anti over-active moderation however I do think we each have a responsibility to look after the interets of young people who may visit the site. How we accomplish that as a group, I have no idea. I didn't like the old Sex forum as it encouraged too many stupid and explicit posts and it wasn't limited to over 18s anyway. Perhaps we should each be more proactive in reporting threads/posts that we think may be overly explicit? I can't think of anything else we can do. We can't control orgnotes or the chat and this is where children visiting the site are likely to be most vulnerable.