Upset
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I Have a Suggestion for Similar Worlds

I don’t think it’s any secret that there are online predators on this site, hiding in the PMs(or sometimes less inconspicuously) and that there are young naive children on this site as well. There is an option to make a 13-15 and 16-17 year old account and while there are some measures put in to protect them, such as restricting who can communicate with them. Because this is an anonymous site so we can’t know for sure that if two people in that age range are talking that one isn’t secretely an adult, preying on the naivety of the other.
My suggestion is that for all underaged accounts, before activating the account they should have to go through a presentation of sorts, teaching how to look out for predators, not to give out personal information, not to reveal to much, not to send pictures of them self, etc. But on top of that, because I would expect the majority of children on here making an account would just skip right past it, I think we should quiz them on the presentation. Nothing too difficult because obviously we want them to join the site, but just enough so that we can be confident they have a general understating of how to protect themselves from predators. I know this isn’t cundusive to getting new members to join because many underaged members will be turned off the site by the idea of having to take a quiz just to join, but it insures that they can try to protect themselves from predators, which should be a top priority.

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this, hoping this will be looked at seriously by the Admins and please any feedback is welcome, I’d like to know how the community feels about this as well.
SW-User
i joined when i was 18. i had people messaging me asking if i was ‘really 18’ and saying stuff like ‘you don’t need to lie it’s fine if you’re not’. there are a [i]lot[/i] of predators here. way more than you’d think

i’d support a quiz like this. at the very least i think a warning is necessary. i also think we should ban minors who try to get around the age limit by posting a different age or not revealing it at all
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@SW-User Thank you for your support

Agreed, I’ll admit I was guilty of being underaged on EP and lying about it but if they banned me I would have totally deserved it. Either ban or forcibly changing their age and their account to an underaged one
I have a friend or two on here who I know are lying about their age but I’ll take keeping them safe over being able to talk to them any day
SW-User
All I would add, is that there's an active role for parents on this issue. They are the primary care giver, the buck stops with them.
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@SW-User Some parents are just ignorant honestly, it’s not cause they’re bad parents or anything, it’s just that they didn’t grow up with it so they don’t understand how different their childhood is from their child’s

I wouldn’t say the site is being a surrogate parent, I just don’t think a site would want to be responsible for a sexual predator taking advantage of an underaged user and it should be a priority to prevent

Like you said, most age gate software would block this site, and there are underaged users on here so their parents have already dropped the ball and they won’t be the only ones and I want the site to be able to pick up that slack
SW-User
@JRVanguard 100% agree🙂
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@SW-User Thank you very much and thank you for being so respectful🙂
sighmeupforthat · 46-50, M
They're not going to go through the trouble.


That's when the parents should step in and be a parent.
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@sighmeupforthat Parents can only do so much, the site connects them so they share some of the responsibility for making sure the wrong people aren’t talking to kids
But I do agree parents have a responsibility to make sure that there kids are safe but they can’t monitor everything there kid does because chances are the child knows more about technology then they do
It would be argued that it is the parent's responsibility. It's a tough one but this was really muddied when they allowed nudity.
Sad thing is, many underage users make adult accounts
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@InOtterWords That has been the most common argument but the fact of the matter is there are many underaged users already here( both listed as underaged and not) so the idea that the parents should stop them has already failed

But I do agree parents should do more but there’s already proof some parents aren’t watching them close enough

And honestly I was on EP at 15 and I had wonderful parents, they were just ignorant of the internet
@JRVanguard my daughter is 12, it terrifies me
JRVanguard · 26-30, M
@InOtterWords I completely understand that, thats who I have in mind when I want to make this change
Kids are too smart for their own good nowadays, I know I was

Luckily you have experience on a site like this and I know you well enough to know that you’re a very caring person and I’m sure you’re a wonderful mother🤗

Unfortunately, not all children can be so lucky

 
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