Should there be an age requirement to join Fluther?

I wouldn’t say so. Fluther is best when available without any kind of bar keeping people from asking questions. There are immature posts from some people who are well beyond the age where they are excusable. Age shouldn’t be a factor when you’re searching for life’s truths. =D

There is. You have to be 13 years old.
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Besides that I don’t know how old anyone on this site is….and basic math skills would get through the “what year were you born” thing…. and I do my share of pollution I doubt it would matter

@coffeenut lol fair enough! I’m just going bonkers on this other thread because someone is getting incensed about trivial things and Flutherites are just trying to help.

@ette_ lol…you can’t help the helpless

@ette_ So then just walk away. Trust me, an age requirement of any kind wouldn’t weed out everything.

I do wish there was a way of knowing when you were answering/talking to a minor on Fluther (like an indicator such as a driver’s license has). It definitely changes my answer to some questions: weight loss, sex, homework, etc.

@ette_ I don’t think there should be a more severe age limit than there is. I think I know the situation you speak of (I will go and do some work when the daily fluther addiction phase passes) but while the questioner may not like the responses, at least they are getting some down-to-earth, sensible advice. We can but hope something sinks in and they think about it.

Overall though, I look at some of the questions posed by young people here and my heart goes out to them so I am glad we are here for them. Even if some of them are a tad…. bratty. And of course there are those who are perfectly delightful. Takes all sorts of folks at all sorts of ages to make up a flutherworld.

More often than not, we pick up on who is very young and ask for his or her age fairly quickly. And it is true; a few of them get very defensive and waste energy on silly rebuttals. But, more often than not, the community helps.

And for many questions, we debate (courteously) among ourselves about our answers, responses and personal experiences.

Our donnybrook over the past few days is not typical, happily.

I would have loved a site such as this when I was 13, 14, and 15. I thought my miseries were unique and would not have dreamed of discussing them with anyone face to face. What a waste of my energies.

The young folks who end up sticking around are surely worth knowing. And no, I’m not just talking about my kids. :p

I think there should be an age limit of 18 or above, or an age limit of 16 and above as long as there is some indication that the child is underage and that his/her parents have ok’d them being on this site. There is a lot of conversation (serious and silly) that is not appropriate for children. And there might even be an exception for younger kids if there is a guardian that is viewing the questions and answers at the same time (some way that has to be verified with the mods). There was a young lady on the threads today that started to threaten certain legal accusations at some of the respondents. She had no idea what she was saying with her implications. There are very different ramifications for adults than there are for children. There should be some way of legally verifying your age (that you are of legal age) that is more than just “saying” that you are over 18.

@Kardamom, sadly you got a really bad reaction from a young girl from what I saw on one thread. I’m sorry about that you certainly didn’t deserve that treatment.
We have some young people here who are really great. ChocolateReigns comes to mind.
Like @gailcalled said, It would have been so great to have had a place like this to come to when I was young and get some adult advice anonymously.

Now I’m incredibly curious what thread!
I often find the input of some of the younger users to be refreshing and interesting, and I think it’s a good thing that so many Jellies take the time to try to help and enlighten some of the younger ones. I, too, wish I had had something like this when I was that age. loooooong ago

To be honest – yes, but whether a person actually lies about their age is all up to them. ;-)

I’ll say that if the purpose of the site is to gather experts, it needs to be balanced between (1) being old enough to actually GAIN an expertise in something (psychologically that’s set at 10 years of study), and (2) being old enough to accept honestly the advice of an expert. ;-)

In all honesty, the above is pretty young due to (2).

@iamthemob: For those who lie about their age, one can usually suss them out. Use of language, ability to understand nuance, defensiveness or lack of it, short fuse, assumption that the collective is clairvoyant, confusion, ability to stay on topic. (I could always tell when my kids were lying.)

I am biased because I am young, but here’s my take.
I’ve been coming to debate/Q&A sites a la Fluther since I was about 13, and while I’ll agree that 95% of what 13 year olds have to say isn’t particularly thought provoking, I don’t think a sweeping rule against youth on websites like this is good idea either, because there are good eggs too. Someone cited ChocolateReigns up there as an example (which I agree with) and I will also add that DominicX has been a valuable member of such sites since he was 14 or so. I think I was pretty well received at that age, too, unless people were just trying to be nice to me. It is a different viewpoint for sure, but I don’t see any reason why those kids that are able to play nice and form coherent sentences should be autobanned from Fluther.

It benefits kids, too, to be able to come to sites like this. I think I would be a very different person – less informed, less understanding of other viewpoints and situations that I don’t necessarily see in my day-to-day life and only come across on the internet – if I hadn’t used websites like Fluther from a young age.

I know what sparked this question, and it raised my blood pressure as much as the next guy, but I don’t think Fluther has a serious problem with immaturity, at all. The modding and the general atmosphere here makes it not at all a hospitable environment to ignorant or immature people (of any age), and they won’t find themselves wanting to stick around for long.

I agree with @Mariah .
Also as a (cough) middle-aged woman with teenage sons, I could at times use the insight from someone who is from their peer group.

I think a community like Fluther self-sorts for age. Or at least for maturity. Those who are younger and less mature don’t find Fluther to their taste, so they wander off back to Y!A.

@downtide Thank God! I’m so glad you said that, because I was a little worried that I’d have to put up with more of….