Age Restrictions needed on ATS

Originally posted by schrodingers dog

Originally posted by LASTofTheV8s

Perhaps you are an idiot with a dictionary in his lap ...

lol, that's actually pretty funny, that's going in my signature.

Yeah, come on. That was awesome! And, I have so much more.

and I am an ATS member that is sick of seeing posts where kids are showing signs of SERIOUS problems, in a forum that they are not even supposed to be, and watching them get 3 pages of "crazy" ...

Hey, how do you think we feel ... we've been watching you do that for 4 pages.

Unfortunately, if you go back, you will see that I have been defending myself for 4 pages, instead of getting anywhere.
Insults from threatened people.
Kids that are upset that somebody wants them out of the forum.
Adults that feel their parenting skills are in question.
And the "Mystery People" that are not kids, and do not have kids, yet find themselves compelled to enter the thread, advice against looking out for kids, while insulting me.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by LASTofTheV8s]

reply to post by LASTofTheV8s



Sure it might not be a good idea for a child under 10 to read what is one here. But if they are older than that I see no reason to censor them to this great site.

May I ask what your age 'cut off' would be? 20, 30, 40?

I am 23, a FSME of aliens/UFOs, cosmic level contributor, have "godlike wisdom"(those are both maxed out btw ) on my 161 applause. Not trying to boast here, just saying, sometimes age has NOTHING to do with quality.

Originally posted by jkrog08
reply to post by LASTofTheV8s

 

Sure it might not be a good idea for a child under 10 to read what is one here. But if they are older than that I see no reason to censor them to this great site.

May I ask what your age 'cut off' would be? 20, 30, 40?

I am 23, a FSME of aliens/UFOs, cosmic level contributor, have "godlike wisdom"(those are both maxed out btw

) on my 161 applause. Not trying to boast here, just saying, sometimes age has NOTHING to do with quality.

I am not even suggesting an age cut off. There already is one. I was just looking to hash out some concerns, and see if anybody had some ideas.
Feel free to boast. Be proud of your accomplishments.
But, the fact is, if you ever actually HAVE a 10 year old, you may feel differently.
When that child is your whole world, and you never even knew you could care about them, he way you do.
You might think about some of the things you know. Or, things you worry about. Things that keep you up at night. Or, make you cry. Things that are just plain terrible, and are posted on this site.
And, you may want your child to be safe from those thoughts, and just be a "kid" for a little while longer. Let their biggest worry be about a math test, or a crush they have on somebody.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by LASTofTheV8s]

reply to post by LASTofTheV8s


Well that is ultimately up to you and others who feel the same way as parents. This is NOT a abovetopsecret.com issue, It is a free will personal choice thing. SO instead of asking ats to make an age restriction (which they already have) you should make up your own mind on whether to let your young ones or others view the site.

That is pretty much it, that is what is boils down to...It is on the parents NOT ATS..

Done...

I agree that an age restriction is good in theory, but would be very hard to enforce and probably not worth the effort. At the end of the day though, it is more up to the parents of children to decide and monitor what is best for them and what information they want their kids exposed to.

I just think there is a real danger for kids under 16 to be indoctrinated in a sense by what they read on here. (More so the kids under this age bracket that do not have any real parental supervision of their internet activities.)

Everyone is different, but most people do not mature mentally before they are at last 16 years old. We deal with some pretty complex topics and controversial ones. If people under that age decide to wonder into some information that they are not really ready to absorb, it could harm their ability to think critically and form unbiased opinions in the future.

Just my opinion on the matter.

[edit on 7/1/2010 by Dark Ghost]

I didn't read the whole thread because I really only have a couple things to say on the matter.

Age restriction really isn't possible.

And, I completely agree with the OP. Kids do go on this site to seek advice for whatever problems they may be having. I think everyone here agrees that there are DEFINITELY adults on this forum not fit for giving advice to these children.

Good, I'm glad that there are age restrictions. people are not meant to be opened up so early in life.

Even if there were age restrictions, say 18 plus, all the young ones would have to do is set their birth date at 1992 to bypass it.

its the internet you can LIE

good try though

i misunderstood the purpose of your post until about half way through reading it.
If i do understand it correctly, youre saying that this site needs age restrictions due to the content and subject matter?
I dont agree with that at all, you are over-reacting in a big way in my opinion.
You wouldnt happen to belong to any of those groups that lobby the government to force publishers to put warning labels and age restrictions on video games wold you? im j/k
But seriously, I have two kids, a boy whos a sophomore and a girl in 6th grade and I would have no problems if they wanted to join this site.

What I first thought you meant in your OP was that this site has gone to hell BECAUSE of kids, so ill just pretend you said that.
Then ill throw my support for an age verification system and and for the policy that if you cant buy beer, you cant post on ATS

I first began to notice the viral spread of immaturity on this forum a couple of years ago and it was confirmed when several of the posters began using the same words and terminology that my 6th grade daughter uses when talking to her friends.

reply to post by LASTofTheV8s


An I.Q. Limit would be better - you'd have to solve a complicated puzzle to be able to sign up. =)

Originally posted by LASTofTheV8s

Originally posted by Kailassa
Exactly, the decision about what your kid sees should be made by you, not by "forum babysitters".
Yet you seem to be looking for some change in this forum that would allow you to trust it to be more appropriate for children, rather than being prepared to monitor your children's involvement yourself.

This has nothing to do with my kid. You should read my posts before mumbling yourself into negation.

It's interesting watching you become increasingly rude with every post.
You really do not handle opposite points of view well, do you?

I had been giving you the benefit of the doubt, thinking you might be concerned for your own children. However you are making it obvious you have contempt for parents who differ from you in methods of child rearing and want to impose censorship on everyone's children.

"Think of the children" has always been a cover for unworthy agendas, and yours is just one more.

It is not "Censorship". I am talking about filtering what these kids are exposed to. If that outrages you, you are kind of proving my point, as to how bad we need to do it.
In some cases, parents and the kids may not know what is best for them.

Filtering, censorship ... exactly the same thing. Weasel words don't change facts.

Again, try the "reading thing" before you go ahead and insinuate that somebody is a weasel.

Perhaps you should brush up on comprehension skills. Your use of weasel words does not make you a weasel.

My kids, like Whaaa's have grown up free to access whatever information they want. Kids bought up with love, respect, good examples from their parents and able to talk to their parents about everything can usually handle freedom fine.

"grown up free to access whatever information they want. " Well, at this point, I'm pretty sure most of us agree that I know better than you do.

Once more you show contemptuous intolerance for different parenting methods. The fact is, my method works. My kids have grown up open-minded, well educated, caring and responsible.

Well you did say that ATS was bad for children and that an over 18 agreement won't keep them out, so what is it you want?
If you want the type of censorship known of as filtering, just move to Australia or China, and the government will make your your precious little ones don't see anything nasty.

As I said, I am not worried about my children. I am worried about the children of people like you.

Your reply is conceited and abusive. Have you run out of genuine arguments?

I would expect the parent to be the "mature adult" who is there to give your child advice and input.
But you have proved your immaturity by jumping to conclusions, so I'm starting to think it would be a "Holy Crap!" situation if your children only have you to guide them.
No wonder you want to shift off parental responsibilities by pushing for censorship of this forum.

I am holding back right now, as anybody who has ever read some of my posts can tell you.
You have been insinuating, over and over, that this is about my child, and you have brought my child into this over and over. For some reason you have tried to make this personal.

And this from the man who states,"I am worried about the children of people like you."
Are your posts serious, or are you trying to make people laugh with your demonstration of hypocrisy?

You also have no business in this thread. Although, you also have helped to prove my point.

Perhaps you should consider starting your own forum, in which you can prevent anyone posting who disagrees with you.
In this forum you do not have the privilege of deciding who does and does not have any business to be posting.

I can't possibly see what you would have to offer any kid that is looking for sane, solid, healthy answers to a problem.

I'd believe that. Not everyone can recognise wisdom when they encounter it.

This thread was made hoping that some logical, decent, open-minded people with the ability to communicating without attacking, could actually throw some ideas around in a positive way.

Without attacking? Coming from you, this is just more hypocrisy.
How about this for "not attacking:"

but you may literally be the Living Embodiment of what is wrong with the world today.
. . . .
you are just full of crap.
. . . .
YOU scare me.

And they are what the moderator left in after having to remove abuse from just one post of yours.

Originally posted by EMPIRE
reply to post by LASTofTheV8s

 

It wouldn't be a problem if ATS members (the majority being adults) excercised restraint and practiced self examination before they pressed the reply button.

Hehe, you do have a point there Empire.

Fortunately or unfortunately, our thoughts and opinions are much more simple (and some would say honest) when we are younger - we are not as held-back, restrained or reflective when expressing how we feel. Also we are inexperienced in general and do not have worries over political correctness.

As adults, we better understand that the things we say have consequences to the way other people perceive us. Thus, we are less honest and more willing to refrain from expressing how we really feel about issues around us out of fear of being judged.

Finding a balance between the two as an adult is the best option. I have often typed long responses and decided against submitting then at the last moment out of fear of being judged. I'm sure this has happened to many others. On the down side, some of the most honest, raw and logical things I have written were never published because of my fear to offend anyone or break the websites T&C.

[edit on 7/1/2010 by Dark Ghost]

I think that a well adjusted kid would have no problems with this site. My son (14) is a member. He doesn't log on very much since he can't do it from his Xbox 360 console, but when he does I can see what he has been up to. But I have interacted with some kids who were less than well adjusted. At first you might think they are just trolling or having a bit of fun, but after a while, you see that they have some real issues. I don't know how to handle that other than to leave it alone. What suggestions do you folks have for that situation?

reply to post by network dude

What suggestions do you folks have for that situation?

I just try to ignore it, especially since most of the time they really are trolling and will say something inflammatory on purpose just to get a fight started.
However in cases where i find my will to be weak and my sarcasm to be strong, i may actually use the "ignore" feature on ATS, so Im not tempted lol.
I dont think ive actually ever used ignore, if i did it was a long time ago
"

Dont worry...

If they get to crazy you can always count on me to come spoil the fun. With cutting remarks and extreme cases of their own logic i'll bring them back to earth.

That is as long as the delusional religious slaves dont hold me back.

reply to post by nh_ee


Actually I think high school kids would have a better chance at answering those questions than some of us older members. I haven't thought about Catcher in the Rye or read about Daisy, Tom, Nick and Jay (and yes I had to google the character names) in umpteen years...
As for the square of the hypotenuse, I took geometry in tenth grade and then promptly forgot most of it before the next year.
So the questions might work for keeping extremely young ones off the site..(Although they could google the answers for the quiz too.) For 30 somethings like me (who haven't kept up with academics while raising kids) the test would serve to keep us out of the site.

I have been blogging for over 10 years.

It often surprises me when I find out someone's age.

Often those I think are teenagers are past 50 and those I think are mature posters are in their teens/20s.

My request of ATS is to raise the ignore limit to 20 - - and make it non permanent (if possible). Meaning - something like - an ignored poster is automatically released after 24 to 48 hours.

reply to post by LASTofTheV8s

I am talking about protecting THEM.

from what? life?

hate to break it to you - but, even factoring in the unusual subject matter - this is real life

yes - even here - at ATS

I have seen on numerous occasions many different people put themselves out there for all the world to see - laid their souls bare - and practically open up their veins right here on ATS

begging for advice - sometimes begging to be kicked even

you know what? The responses they get are varied - just like in real life - but for the most part people are kind, compassionate, generous

and also useful

to be perfectly honest - this is one of the things about ATS that truly amazes me. Truly - it is a community - and without getting too sappy about the whole thing - it kinda reinstates my faith in humankind the way people will listen to each other and help out in here

always cracks me up these threads about "the youngsters"

at what point did you stop being a youngster - and cross that magical line where you could handle reality by yourself?

I know this sounds harsh - but if the kids stand a chance in hell of surviving "out there" - they will also survive just fine "in here"