Should children be allowed to be exposed to adult content?

@TinyViolins mental health is a problem, i agree.
But its cause is MASSIVELY spread across bigger parameters than internet use. Although i agree it is a factor .

I believe in learning the ability to self regulate - but this doesnt seem to be being taught these days .
Children are warned of online predators , yet seem to pay little attention.

Ive even seen now older users complain and justify emotional damage from knowinly self exposing themselves to adults online in their yourh. Who ended up being predators. Which , in honest truth, they were warned NOT to do .

But , ive also seen older users mention how much they were helped by adults online when they were young.

So its a two edged sword .

@Nunatak People who are trusting by nature tend to be taken advantage of most often. Children have to be trusting by nature in order to survive in a world where they have no real autonomy. We're setting them up to fail if we don't try to protect them and instead let them fend for themselves.

There are lots of ways we teach children to self-regulate, from time-outs and detention, to the teaching of abstinence, to anti-bullying, anti-drug, or anti-distracted driving campaigns, and even to stranger danger exercises. And many of them end up running into these problems we're trying to prevent anyway because they don't have the experience to really understand the consequences of their actions. Not until it's too late for a few of them.

That said, there are already mental health sites established by professionals that are better at addressing many common problems facing young people. Asking children to gamble their future well-being on the intentions of online strangers is incredibly negligent. Many predators know how to exploit vulnerabilities, which makes them more than capable of outwitting a child that may feel lost and desperate.

I agree that we can't protect our children from everything, but this issue is a no-brainer for me. Anonymity is a criminal's best friend, and websites like these are designed around anonymity

@TinyViolins i see your points, i truly do.
Kids are not as stupid as we think , but they are rebellious.
I fear sometimes they ignore warnings just because they have been told they shouldnt .

@Peapod i agree.
I dont know why its advertised as a teen site , when the majority of users are adults .

@Nunatak I have no doubt there really could be teens here already. I worry about that. The only thing I can do is be mindful of what I put out there. It's not much of a challenge for me since I am already pretty PG rated here.

I just wish there was a way to give consenting adults their space and teens their space, but I would have no idea how they can really do that.

This site has no business encouraging a mixture of both in one public feed.

@Nunatak yeah but that doesn’t change the fact that weird adults are trying to creep on the minors here 🤷🏽‍♀️

@SW-User No , it doesnt .
I just wonder what, if any, measures can be taken to reduce the creeps from doing what they do .
What is right?
Give children their own section, and no adult user protection at all, or give them full freedom and some user adult protection ?

@Nunatak Yeah that’s true, I wish something could be done about it. But unfortunately people can make fake accounts and be dishonest about who they are. So it probably wouldn’t work much 😕
I’m not sure honestly 🤷🏽‍♀️ For the reasons I just mentioned

@Nunatak people report them though and they still are allowed to be on here. I get them not being able to see everything but when reports come in on such claims it should be a main priority to check out

@Torsten i think admin does check them out .
They are working with users and police to monitor and help convict users here.
Its just, people can make new accounts
I know admin have started checking vpn's and sources of user accounts to try and stop it from happening.

But where there is a will, there is a way .

Its sad the internet gets poisoned by these people .

@Nunatak from experience with one pedophile who got reported here so many times. It took them ages to eventually ban him and it wasnt due to being a pedophile

@bijouxbroussard i truly dont understand why it was advertised as a teen site, it makes no sense as the vast majority of users are adults .

Seems a VERY bad move of admins to say such a thing .

@DailyFlash i imagine you have played with your settings, and set age limits i havent touched mine, so they are open to everyone .

@Nunatak oh, I must have set if when I first joined and don’t remember. Not that I’ll change it now.

@CorvusBlackthorne I know its an easy get around even if they did divide this site into adult and child sections.

I mean, i can see some of these 13-15 year olds are obviously catfish.