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Barbelith and age

Sax

13:05 / 08.04.04

It's a long while since I signed up for Barbelith, so someone can correct me if this is already in place, but should we have an age advisory on Barbelith? You know, "we talk about some pretty maaaaad stuff here, it would be nice if you're 18 or at least open minded", that sort of thing?

Tryphena Absent

13:40 / 08.04.04

No I don't think there should be an age advisory, we have a few members here who signed up before they were 18 and are great. Frankly I think barbelith gives adolescents an education that they need and it shouldn't be constrained to believing that people under 18 cope with some subjects in an inadequate way when compared to some people in their 30's. Screw age advisories- utter nonsense, we're not explicit enough to need one.

Sax

13:51 / 08.04.04

I'm just envisaging Tom appearing in court when the mother of a 15-year-old girl says: "And she signed up to what she thought was a website about comics, but it was just full of people talking about fisting and stuff."

Grey Area

14:17 / 08.04.04

By that line of reasoning someone could sue Playboy if their kid went a read it at a friend's house. I'm with Anna on this one...and let's face it: If a child finds Barbelith through an interest in the Invisibles, then they've got pretty open-minded parents to begin with.

grant

14:20 / 08.04.04

So, Sax, your baby's discovered daddy's computer, has he?

Tryphena Absent

14:41 / 08.04.04

Mind you barbelith is googly now- so we're going to get more randoms, at the age of 14 though I probably would have found this place rather dry. You're assuming kids are going to be attracted to barbelith in the first place but there's a lot to dissuade people as well.

Sax

18:18 / 08.04.04

I've tried to keep the kid off Barbelith, but he's obssessed. His first word was "paradigm".

Yeah, maybe you're right. Just thought we should cover our arses. With regard to the fisting, obviously.

Baz Auckland

21:37 / 08.04.04

If we post a warning, wouldn't that attract more under-18s?

Tom Coates

22:52 / 08.04.04

They're quite right - there should be an age advisory and I'll try and get something in place over the next week or so.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:56 / 08.04.04

Yeah, an advisory covers us- well, covers Tom, to be precise- if the case Sax envisages ever happens. ot that I think it's likely to... but it could.

Tryphena Absent

16:04 / 09.04.04

Yeah well I confess I wasn't thinking about it in legal terms which was eejiotic of me.

w1rebaby

21:55 / 10.04.04

Most boards I know which might have "adult content" seem to be okay with just putting a caveat on the registration page, even places like U75 which are sensitive about legal scrutiny. It's not like we have people posting porn here - well, not for long, anyway.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:05 / 11.04.04

Haven't you seen the Barbeslash thread, fridge?

Char Aina

19:09 / 14.04.04

what would the age be?
would it be one of those "or whatever age you need to be in your country" deals, or are we going to recommend kids adhere to the law of the country the server is based?

i personally like 16, seeing as how brits can fuck, marry, and die for our country at that age. it also seems like a good age to be before you get too far into thnking about the candles or the clenched hands.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:15 / 14.04.04

Yeah, I think just a caveat should do it- apart from anything else, it covers (afaik) Tom while not actually requiring him to do any extra work checking details of thousands of members on the off-chance he's gonna get screwed. I think if we can keep a balance between making sure Mr Coates isn't gonna get in any trouble for stuff WE do and making sure we don't drastically increase his (unpaid-for) workload, it'd be cool.

I'm with toksik, I think 16's good for a recommended age. Man, I'd have LOVED this place when I was 16. (Except it probably wouldn't have worked on a ZX Spectrum.) Fuck, it may have even helped me grow out of being 16 faster! When in actual fact, I still haven't got around to doing that. (scribbles hurried note on "To Do" list.)

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