Uhm your how old again?

[jackfaire]

I feel that for online roleplaying games there should be a different server for people under 18. This may be an unpopular thought I don't know but I for one feel uncomfortable when I am gaming with someone and I find out that they are 8 years old. Especially since unless they tell me I don't know and I might be saying something inappropriate.

Yes I do currently make a point not to game with anyone I don't know.

[Cat]

I don't play online, but that is actually a really good idea. Not only can younger kids take things too seriously, but I'm sure some of the chats are not exactly PC :)

I'm surprised this isn't in place already

[the_std]

Easy - there's no real way to verify ages online, plus kids always want to do the grownup stuff, so they're going to lie about their ages to get the "good stuff". There is no feasible way to separate all the minors from the adults in situations like that.

[jackfaire]

Easy - there's no real way to verify ages online, plus kids always want to do the grownup stuff, so they're going to lie about their ages to get the "good stuff". There is no feasible way to separate all the minors from the adults in situations like that.

In the game I play WOW you can pick different servers that are all the same things but some have different features.

My suggestion is to dedicate a server to minors. The parents could be given parental override and set the server for the account they pay for for their kids.

It isn't just about the kids either it also protects us adults from being wrongfully accused of things.

[Slytovhand]

I'd love to agree wholeheartedly with this thread... not sure how it would work. Maybe Jackfaire's idea..???

I've pug'ged a few times, and been disappointed with the fools I've had to tolerate. And that's why I don't WoW any more (well, a reason), but I'll go Lotro instead - somewhat more mature crowd on there.

Problem can be that some kids these days have their own credit cards, so can pay for their account themselves.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's usually possible to tell someone's age by the way they act online; on one board I go on there are teens who set their age as twenty, but either give themselves away by talking about stuff like school, teachers etc or the way they act online, for example chatspeak or bratty behaviour, gives them away. One girl pretended to be 31, however she slipped up once by referring to a horrible teacher at her school.

[jackfaire]

The situation that sparked this thread. I had this other player ask me if I would group with her. I did notice a bit of immaturity in some of her comments but I didn't think anything of it, my 51 year old mom still hasn't progressed past the maturity of a stereotypical teenager. I love "childish" things as noted in other threads but I am still an adult.

Anyway I digress. So this girl is grouping with me no big deal then at one point she goes, "I am 8! How old are you?" This is when I politely made excuses to discontinue playing with her and extricate myself from the situation.

If this girl has her own credit card then something is severly twisted. I know there are other ways to pay but still my 8 year old is watched online and there is always an adult sitting with her while she plays. (not WOW but other online games.)

Teenagers I can somewhat deal with I am still not comfortable playing with them as there is the possiblity of false accusations of inappropriate activity but with kids under ten I would hope the parents would be in someway monitoring their kids online usage.

[gremcint]

Her parent could be right there, her parents could buy her hours for her.


I think separate servers would be a good idea especially if you can prevent adults from being in the kids server it would make for a much safer gaming experience for a lot of kids if you take my meaning.

[elsporko]

I don't see the point. For one thing I'd rather play a game with a cool 8 year old then an adult who feels the need to act like he's 5. Secondly there is no way to know if adults aren't pretending to be kids on the kid server. Thirdly its up to the parents to parent. If they don't mind their kid playing online with adults then why do you?

[jackfaire]

I don't see the point. For one thing I'd rather play a game with a cool 8 year old then an adult who feels the need to act like he's 5. Secondly there is no way to know if adults aren't pretending to be kids on the kid server. Thirdly its up to the parents to parent. If they don't mind their kid playing online with adults then why do you?

If I say something that would be appropriate for an adult to hear but not a kid to hear.

For example if I ask some people I am playing with, When did you stop believing in Santa Claus? What if I just inadvertantly told a kid that Santa Claus isn't real who still believes. Yes at 8 cuz my 8 year old still believes.

If I mention, drinking, smoking, etc to people I am playing with these are not topics I think should be discussed with children the way adults discuss them.

[chaoticjthm]

well its unfortunate but yeah there really isn't a way to tell what age they are. There are far too many people who play wow to monitor them all at once. and not all 8 year olds are bad players either as scary as that is. As you know well i have a lot of friends that play WOW and quite a few have played with 8 year olds who are better than a lot of other people. But you are right in what you can say when talking to them and most are just not very good but ultimately it is the parents responcibility to watch the child. And i hate to say it but your daughter is a special case either way and not every parent has the time to sit and watch they're kids online for hours.

[Boozy]

not every parent has the time to sit and watch they're kids online for hours.

If as a parent, one does not have the time to monitor their child the entire time they are online, then that child should not be online. Period.

[elsporko]

If I say something that would be appropriate for an adult to hear but not a kid to hear.

For example if I ask some people I am playing with, When did you stop believing in Santa Claus? What if I just inadvertantly told a kid that Santa Claus isn't real who still believes. Yes at 8 cuz my 8 year old still believes.

If I mention, drinking, smoking, etc to people I am playing with these are not topics I think should be discussed with children the way adults discuss them.


If the parent doesn't want the kid to hear these kind of things and the kid can't handle these kinds of topics then the kid shouldn't be there. Its not your job to protect the innocence of children across the world.

[jackfaire]

If the parent doesn't want the kid to hear these kind of things and the kid can't handle these kinds of topics then the kid shouldn't be there. Its not your job to protect the innocence of children across the world.

No it's not but it is my liablity. As I am aware that all ages play the game and as such I have to self censor because if I do say something inappropriate for young ears then I am opening myself up to lawsuits at the least.

[elsporko]

If you really think that you are going to be sued for saying something adult on a video game then you probably should censor yourself all the time. Who knows when a child might be pressing their ear against your window and hear the word
"boobs" and become a serial killer, or whatever happens when adults talk to children like the children are smart.

[jackfaire]

If you really think that you are going to be sued for saying something adult on a video game then you probably should censor yourself all the time. Who knows when a child might be pressing their ear against your window and hear the word
"boobs" and become a serial killer, or whatever happens when adults talk to children like the children are smart.

There is a difference between a child overhearing me say something inappropriate and me holding a conversation with someone I don't realize is only 8 and having the conversation involve topics that I wouldn't normally discuss with someone that age.

[elsporko]

If you can have the conversation with the 8 year old on the subject and not realize they are 8 then they are mature enough to handle the subject, so whats wrong with discussing it?

[jackfaire]

If you can have the conversation with the 8 year old on the subject and not realize they are 8 then they are mature enough to handle the subject, so whats wrong with discussing it?

ROFLMAO Oh I don't know the fact they are legally a child and thus some topics of conversation could land real jail time.

[elsporko]

Unless the conversation is "What me to come over and have sex" then you should be safe. What examples are there of people going to jail for talking to somebody they thought was an adult and was actually a child?

[Lace Neil Singer]

Perhaps the fact that in a "he said she said" situation, the child's version will, in the majority of cases, be taken as the correct one? I wonder; are you just really naive, or do you genuinely believe what you're posting?

[elsporko]

I suppose in the hypothetical situation where you say something so vulgar you can get in trouble for it (which I'm not even sure exists) and the child knows who you are, and can prove it, and for whatever reason you can't prove you had no idea what the child's age was then I suspect you better be careful.

Although in the real world there has been a case where a guy got off after having sex with a ten year old that he thought was older, so in some cases ignorance is innocence.