I Have a Suggestion for Similar Worlds

I don't see much of a point to it, honestly. You could give minors an option in their settings to not take PMs from people over eighteen, maybe. Most teenagers are not stupid enough to be manipulated into harm by nefarious adults, and the ones that are do not magically wise up the moment they turn eighteen; this is just the arbitrary age at which we decide, "Well, if they can't handle it, it's their problem now."

I remember being a teenager well enough, and any time the adults told you they were doing something to "protect" you, it almost invariably meant, "This is something that most of you are perfectly capable of handling responsibly, but there are a couple of kids here who are dumb as posts, so we have to idiot-proof this to avoid the consequences of their inevitable fuck ups."

I've only seen a couple of these kinds of topics in this group (I assume there have been many), but one thing I have noticed is that young people have not turned up in them to actually describe their experiences in interacting with adults on this site. Might be worth actually canvassing their opinions before deciding things for them; this is something we as adults do not do nearly enough.

I actually agree with that. I tend to look at thirteen-year-olds in general as things which I have no idea how to meaningfully interact with. They have usually gained neurological access to their full rational faculties by that point, so you cannot hope to get anywhere by treating them like children, but they also (again, generally speaking) have nothing interesting to say from an adult's perspective, nor much ability to absorb what you say to them in anything like the way you intended it to be understood.

But on the other hand, a sixteen-year-old is basically someone I am willing to try treating as a young adult, and speak with in much same way I would anyone in the 18–21 bracket. While the general mental gap between age thirteen and age sixteen seems a critical one from the perspective of having meaningful interactions with adults, I see no such fundamental distinction between a sixteen- and eighteen-year-old. It is very much down to the level of individual maturity at that age (and, I would argue, the same applies to the 18–21 bracket, many representatives of which would be indistinguishable in practice from their younger counterparts if they were not displaying their age group).

Anyway, I consider my most important point to still have been in the last line of my previous post: I don't think this is something worth considering merely on the basis of what we adults IMAGINE minors will experience as a result of being allowed to interact with us. Ask them what they want, and what their positive and negative experiences have been in talking to older people. If they are full of complaints about how adults are behaving toward them, then ask THEM what sorts of features they'd like to see implemented to minimize these problems. I know of few examples of do-gooders actually having done much good by deciding all on their own to offer help to someone who did not ask for it, all the more so if this is done without so much as hearing their opinion on the matter first.

That would not be fair. I have lots of friends who are under 18, none male. I'd be really pissed if they needed to talk about something and couldn't.

This is just my opinion but I block ALL users under 18. That way I never see the pretenders and the pervs with the fake accounts.

Hmm well no minors have shown their opinions yet, perhaps it's not as common a problem as I thought. I still feel that the old way EP did it would work. We don't need people sending pictures of their privates to 13 year olds. [or anyone, seriously stop it with that weird crap)

Gemzaayy that sounds like a better option than restricting any communication. I'm very protective of my underage friends. They do talk to me about stuff they can't talk about their own mothers about. Generally there trying to understand a mother's point of view.

a lot of times it is private things they can't talk to their own mother about. I mean if i said i wanted to block every person over 40 because i think they're old shit would hit the fan. If people want to not interact with other users it's their choice.

Yeah XNexoX, but back on EP, Alex and I talked about things. Girl things, dancing, all kinds of stuff that was chat between 2 friends, not the whole community.

No. I have one very good friend who is under 18 and I can't wait to be able to message her. If I couldn't I would be very sad.

No you could reply back to them but you couldnt start it... so it was harder for the perves to get on them

I told you my opinion and I'm not gonna argue. There are better options like gemzaayy suggested.

@Gemzaayy
Okay that sounds much better than what I thought it was. They should do that then

Well saying this as someone who is under 18... I do get your point XNexoX, but I feel it is unfair to the ones who know what to do in situations like these. Besides, I have hope that the admins will take care of MOST of this. But of course, they can't catch them all. And there isn't really any other sites out there like this, so if this happens it will kinda ruin the site for me.

Yes, I would agree with that too Gemzaayy.

CallMeHopelessNotRomantic "If people want to not interact with other users it's their choice" it's not about me not wanting to interact with under 18's, I don't have anything against them. This is just to protect them from potential predators.

Under 18's could message you but you couldn't message back? That's awful, people would just seem like jerks ignoring them. It should go both ways.

jenna020293, I've seen people have conversations just fine here without having to PM.

Seriously Jenna, not everyone needs to know our business. Having conversations only in public gives the freaks and creeps more info to use. And it's not like pervs wouldn't create new accounts under 18 to talk to them.

I was going to mention the fake under 18 accounts but I didn't want to give anyone any ideas... but since you have already, yes that is a problem that this would not fix.

Thats how it used to be on EP years ago..... under 18s could message you but you couldnt message them or see their profiles... I think thats a good idea :-)

@CallmeHopelessNotRomantic
You don't have to PM to talk... unless of course it is a private matter.
But surely you can see how this can be dangerous?

@Vell
You do make some good points Vell, still 13 year olds are generally more easy to manipulate than an 18 year old.

I can avoid all the unnecessary problems if I block them all. Done! I don't need the aggregations.

Exactly CallMeHopelessNotRomantic. I totally agree.

Valid point