Should a site like this have age restrictions?

How would you enforce them? This site supposedly does have such restrictions. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there are kids here standing up to the “codgers”.

Sometimes they give themselves away. I was at a party many years ago, and a young lady was talking about the day Kennedy was shot. I was dubious, so i asked her if she actually recalled the event. She admitted that she was just a toddler then (which i doubted), and to change the subject asked me who the President was when i was born. I said Harry Truman.

She gave me a blank look, and said “Who?”

I think the restricting the site to people under 50 is a terrible idea.

13 is the age restriction. Isn’t that the law?

What the fuck does age have to do with language?
Please feel free to be as honest and detailed as you feel comfortable with. It’s the internet. There’s been a lot of discussion bout whether members would be comfortable with friends and family reading everything we’ve written here.
Best practice?
They can. Ass/u/me they will.

Most medias have a restriction on certain age groups being able to be subject to material deemed inappropriate, depending on the material and the people who clarify or decide what is appropriate for certain age groups. Like, this movie is rated R, for mature audiences…

There is an age restriction. Users must be 13 or older.

@MrGrimm888 that wasn’t the original intention of this site. This site is supposed to be a free-for-all Q&A site for everyone to ask about anything, like many other Q&A sites. Do you see Quora or Yahoo being rated R?

The road to hell is paved with good intentions mimishu. I’m a sucker for healthy debate. So , I guess I’m on the road with the rest of us. See you in hell!....

@MrGrimm888 Yeah, let’s go to hell together ~

But to be honest I don’t see any connection between an unhealthy debate and bad language. I have seen very intriguing debates with “mature” language, as long as the language isn’t used for flaming (but that will almost certainly be taken care of by the mods). And you can’t stop kids from knowing mature things, they will find out one way or another.

And don’t underestimate kids. I’ve seen kids who engage in adult debates in a mature way.

And don’t forget the adults that engage in adult debates in a very immature way, @Mimishu1995.

(We need gestures.)

Thanks for the input. The question wasn’t meant to reflect that younger people couldn’t offer great discussion. I was more concerned about the legalities of adulls giving their gloves off opinions. (Which is what I want, in part at least.)

I’ve been an active member of Q&A sites since I was 16. One of our moderators joined this site when he was 15, I think. We’ve had other young members over the years, too, and unless they told you themselves, you’d never know it.

This site requires users to be 13 or older. Beyond that point, if sex, violence, and profanity are going to scar Junior’s precious developing mind, I hope their parents keep them off the internet entirely.

@MrGrimm888 just go ahead and say anything you want. I already said this site is a free-for-all Q&A site. If the question concerns sex, you only need to add a NSFW tag. Just don’t attack anyone though.

Noted…

Welcome to Fluther, @MrGrimm888! Enjoy the debate! Thanks for thinking about children. That shows caring and sensitivity.

No—even if it were enforceable.

I debated this very issue here some years ago and while I think 13 is too young there is no way to monitor or prove ones age so, it is what it is. I do agree though as a parent of a now adult daughter that I would probably have not allowed her to be a flutherite at age 13. I think 16–17 would be age appropriate personally, but hey, that’s just my opinion so lets not debate that. lol

In sites similar to this there is separate section for sex related question and you have to accept that you aren’t minor before accessing that part of site. I’m not sure if similar thing can be done while accessing questions tagged as nsfw / having some indication if op is a minor.

Fluther’s founders have moved on and the site is on auto-pilot, FYI.
The moderators keep the peace and work to get what’s broken fixed, but there’s no development.
It is what it is.

And this may be stating the obvious, but ultimately, it’s the parents job to monitor what their underage children are doing in the Internet.

And as far as Fluther is concerned, kids can access FAR FAR more mature content pretty much anywhere on the net with impunity. All they have to do is use their parents credit card (not necessarily for purchase but for ID)

At least here when there is frank talk about sexual matters it is usually accompanied by comments advocating for maturity, balance and emotional awareness. Try getting that on a porn site :)

Most of what they’d be getting on Fluther, regarding sexual issues, would be quite similar to the types of things their parents would be telling them. After all, there are many responsible parents here on Fluther.

Besides, if the mods think anything inappropriate is going on, they’ll step in. All in all, I really don’t think that Fluther is going to be detrimental to kids because most of the discussions likely sound like what’s coming out of the mouths of their parents. And what kid wants to be hearing THAT ??

At any rate, you can generally tell if a person is a juvenile by the questions they ask, like; Does he/she like me? Why did he ignore me? Why did he not kiss me in the truth or dare game? What does it mean if my gym teacher looks intensely at me, then looks away?
The question to which you are referring seemed to me to be a young person, so I didn’t bother answering. Seemed obvious to me. Just take a little more notice when screening questions. Most adults are past that sort of thing. (I say, most adults)
There are plenty here who don’t mind advising youngsters, let them have at it.

Jak, that’s sadly true. The more I read it after I answered, the dumber I felt. That being said, I played truth or dare ( not my idea) at a party not long ago. I thought we were sadly a little seasoned for that game, but I wanted to see two friends of mine get naked…Which they can/will do after some drinks. They / females always ‘bring it up.’ I believe that they want to get naked, but they need an excuse. So TOD it is. It’s a long scharade. We get a little bored, they bring it up, I act disinterested. They beg me to play, and eventually we do. People get naked, girls kiss girls. They like the attention I think.

So, yes normally the question should have raised a few flags, but I guess I thought it was a person similar to the girls I play with occasionally. But I will screen the questions more thoroughly in the future.

^^ I think you’re taking it too seriously..she said she’s 18…end of story. She’s old enough to understand what you wanted to underline..so just chill.

Then there’s the eternal problem of trying to pair age with maturity. Personally I feel that any underage kid who stumbles onto this site and finds it holds his or her interest can only benefit from interacting with so diverse a bunch of folks.