Minors in Forums

[Ursula123]

I am a mother of three boys. The "older" ones 11 and 7 started to sign up in community websites (sports websites) with their own profile and with the possibility to write in the forum. These sports sites are visited by grownups as well as by kids. I wonder if you ever heard about something like an initiative in forums the better take care of the minors taking part. What I have in mind is something like an icon saying "Guided Minor" expressing that these kids discussing their Internet activities with their parents and that also the forum as such as an open, watching eye on them. You think that is impossible. I remember once giving a link in a post, where some 30 people started to discuss whether this is spam or not... funny thing was that they got suspicious as I made a mistake in filling in my profile and checked male there.... Oh what a story...So if there is a "culture" in forums to get rid of spammers, why shouldn't it be possible to get rid of members approaching minors in an unwanted way?

 

[sj1]

I think in this day and age that's a very justifiable concern. In the US the COPPA rules come into play, but the reality is that it has to be dealt with from both the parents side and the website site. The parents really need to take an active role and understand what their kids are doing, and folks like the Mods need to constantly be vigilent. The problem, of course, with any kind of signon info or label is that anybody can put down anything when they register.It's a shame that so much effort has to be spent to keep the sicko's at bay.sj.