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FTC Says Virtual Worlds Bad For Minors
eldavojohn writes "A new report from the FTC is claiming minors have access to explicit content via online virtual worlds such as those found in online games. The report makes five recommendations to keep little Johnny away from the harms of Barrens chat: Use more effective age-screening mechanisms to prevent children from registering in adult virtual worlds; Use or enhance age-segregation techniques to make sure that people interact only with others in their age group; Re-examine language filters to ensure that they detect and eliminate messages that violate rules of behavior in virtual worlds; Provide more guidance to community enforcers in virtual worlds so they are better able to review and rate virtual world content, report potential underage users, and report any users who appear to be violating rules of behavior; and Employ a staff of specially trained moderators who are equipped to take swift action against rule violations."
But why? It so much easier to let the government spend our money and restrict the liberty of all for our lack of action. And there's this cool movie tonight on TV, so I'll think about it tomorrow.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Surely seeing profane language and a few distended assholes is much worse than smoking cigarettes, sneaking booze from your parents liquor cabinet, hearing older kids use profane language, and looking at some stolen porno magizines...
Kids have, and will always be kids. They will hear and do things before their parents willingly expose them to it... all except the distended assholes. That is definitely an unfortunate consequence of the internet.
Champions Online would let my daughter create a cat themed hero, but wouldn't let her name it "Pussy Cat"... I haven't tried naming a character "Dick Cheney" yet.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Yes. Parents need to be pro-active in defending their children from online threats.
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the most irritating people in these virtual worlds are the damn teenagers - I'm all for separating out the populations or at least allowing me to filter out messages from kids. Most adults have at least some level of decorum.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Who needs terrorists when children are doing such a great job of destroying our society?
Sounds like someone at the FTC got ninja looted by a minor.
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
Friend of mine had 4 girl daughters
Whew, that’s good to know. I’d have been worried if he’d had any boy daughters or girl sons.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
You were a very boring teenage brat.
NO SIG
Ever try to open a bottle of aspirin when your wrist hurts from being at the computer too long?
Might want to take a break there or you'll get some nasty chafing. ;)
Precisely! Why would any parent give that manner of control over their children to the government? Consider the following:
Your child needs to be junk-kicked in his man business. Do you want someone like Dick Cheney to be the one junk-kicking your child's man business? Do you want the Supreme Court sending Sonia Sotomayor to your home to junk-kick your child? I certainly hope not. If anyone is going to junk-kick a child's man business, I would hope that the child's parent(s) would care enough not to allow some government official do the junk-kick. Clearly the responsibility of junk-kicking children should lie with the parent(s) of said children.
Please think before asking the government to take over your responsibilities and joys of parenting.