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Should children be allowed to be exposed to adult content?

Poll - Total Votes: 16
Freedom for all ages to use one feed.
Separate feeds for adult/child ages.
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You can only vote on one answer.
Why do we suddenly seem to have a whole bunch of 13 -15 year olds on this site?
I thought they had their own section of SW, and us adults had ours .
Why doesnt admin automatically division users by age? Seems potentially dangerous to me .
What do you think ? Freedom for all, or division of adult and child sections of this site?
I suppose the upside is, paedophillic behaviour is more visible to other users if the site isn't divided.
TinyViolins · 31-35, M
No way. Not to trivialize children or their intelligence, but there have been clear links between the rise of internet usage among teens and their declining mental health, particularly with depression and anxiety.

It's not fully clear exactly which kinds of content create which kinds of problems, since that would be a highly unethical experiment to conduct, but the results are hard to dispute. The best solution right now would be to moderate the kind of content that they're exposed to in order to see if health outcomes improve, and then we can move on to deciding whether or not it solved the problem.

We definitely can't afford to continue doing business as usual with the way mental health rates have been trending
@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 .
TinyViolins · 31-35, M
@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 .
SW-User
I think....
It takes a whole village to raise a child. Parents can only do so much and children are around others online and in daily life.
Divide the teens from adults is only working partly... but many adults won't even mark their "adult content" for what it really is. I don't wish to see the crap but it still comes to my feed because it wasn't marked what it is.
I've known there's teens here for quite a while. Many adults block teen aged members on their profiles.
What's really sad to me is the fact I always thought children, teens and adults all had something to offer each other... insights, ideas, thoughts.... but people needing to spread the adult content kind of ruin that.
I'd rather the adult content be on sites made for adults only.
Peapod · 61-69, F
This is the last site that should be promoted to young teens.

Adults here talking dirty may have no idea if they are talking to a 13 year old...or maybe they do. I see a real problem with that. Why [i]encourage[/i] pedophilia? Isn't that already a concern?
@Peapod i agree.
I dont know why its advertised as a teen site , when the majority of users are adults .
Peapod · 61-69, F
@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.
SW-User
Anyone under 18 shouldn’t even be allowed on here, too many creeps/pedos 🤷🏽‍♀️
SW-User
@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 ?
SW-User
@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
Torsten · 36-40, M
I think they should be banned from it and that is due to their protection. There have been multiple self proclaimed pedophiles on this site alone. That should be enough reason to block them from adults here
Torsten · 36-40, M
@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 .
Torsten · 36-40, M
@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
The site managers recently announced that they were providing an app for this site, and it is classified under "Teen". That would’ve invited the 13-17 year old crowd here immediately.
I definitely agree that children should be protected from adult content, although [b]their[/b] own curiosity doesn’t always make that easy. There had also already been complaints about predators here targeting young people.
I’m not sure how things will work out now.
@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 .
Lostpoet · M
I believe that everyone deserves to have a childhood and kids shouldn't be forced into adulthood.

That's why I have the 18 and under blocked from seeing my content and if I could I'd block the 25 and under too. 😒making me feel and N'sht
Definitely not, but let us be honest. @Andrew and @Nuno cannot be expected to check identification cards at the door.
@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.
I think how they spend their time is ultimately their parents responsibility but I wouldn't label the SW app as TEEN. That's weird.
DailyFlash · 56-60, M
I never see anyone in that age group show up in my feed.
@DailyFlash i imagine you have played with your settings, and set age limits i havent touched mine, so they are open to everyone .
DailyFlash · 56-60, M
@Nunatak oh, I must have set if when I first joined and don’t remember. Not that I’ll change it now.
Carazaa · F
I agree but for me I mostly post Bible verses so I don't mind young kids reading it.
antonioioio · 70-79, M
Certainly not

 
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