Site Wide Age Restriction

[straight_stewie]

 

Well, as we can see, the recent influx of young people has proved to be a minor annoyance to some, and to the forum as a whole, disastrous. I would like to posit that following the lead of pretty much all other "social network" type websites and implementing a minimum age restriction of 13 years old could prove very beneficial to preventing many problems. I see the value in allowing young people onto the site, however, spamming the site with meaningless messages and "first pc build HAALLLLPPPPP" threads (by 11 year olds who you know aren't about to build their first computer) is hardly beneficial, and astronomically annoying, not to mention the strain that it apparently puts on the system. 

[vanished]

I have to disagree for 2 reasons:

1. We can't (same as any other site) really prove age with any reliability
2. I've seen more than enough evidence to know age does not correlate strongly with maturity at all.  I've seen plenty of young people be great on here, and vice versa

[LeapFrogMasterRace]

Age =/= maturity also I doubt anyone who wants to register for this site would comply with age restrictions.

[vanished]

If someone is causing problems, we'll deal with them as the reports come in.  Age doesn't have to factor into it  

[Cela1]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

If someone is causing problems, we'll deal with them as the reports come in.  Age doesn't have to factor into it  

What about LinusTech, he can be very immature some of the time.

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I have to disagree for 2 reasons:

1. We can't (same as any other site) really prove age with any reliability
2. I've seen more than enough evidence to know age does not correlate strongly with maturity at all.  I've seen plenty of young people be great on here, and vice versa

Just make everyone who wants an account have to pass an easy math question first

Such as 

[Speedyv]

An 11 year old would NEVER lie about their age on the internet. That's obscene. 

[minibois]

DeviantArt also has a minimum age of 13, it doesn't work though. Even still, many people over that age still are childish or annoying.

[AlwaysFSX]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

Just make everyone who wants an account have to pass an easy math question first

Such as  

Gonna give me flashbacks to math classes, pls no

[straight_stewie]

8 minutes ago, LeapFrogMasterRace said:

Age =/= maturity also I doubt anyone who wants to register for this site would comply with age restrictions.

9 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

 

I have to disagree for 2 reasons:

1. We can't (same as any other site) really prove age with any reliability
2. I've seen more than enough evidence to know age does not correlate strongly with maturity at all.  I've seen plenty of young people be great on here, and vice versa

 

I agree, sort of. Age restrictions largely work over at Big Blue. How many 10 year olds do you see on Facebook? Besides that, if people know (or just think) that they'll be banned for being underage, they'll be more likely to behave appropriately, and actually contribute to the forum.

Things aren't so cut and dry. In large part age != maturity level, however age does have a bearring on at least two parts of maturity: Social maturity level and "self truth" level. In my experience, while people of all ages can exhibit maturity or a lack-thereof, young people are more likely to do or say things that are socially unacceptable and more likely to have a "holier than thou" attitude. The latter of which is very detrimental to a tech website where getting accurate information quickly can be very important. If there are a bunch of people running around disseminating false information and falsely backing up their claims, it reduces the reputation (and therefore the worth) of the entire site.

 

[colonel_mortis]

If someone is bothering you, just report their post/pm/etc, and we will deal with it accordingly. An age restriction would not solve it.

2 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Just make everyone who wants an account have to pass an easy math question first

Such as 

Come on, you've got to make it harder than that. Anyone could see that the answer is -34

[vanished]

7 minutes ago, Cela1 said:

What about LinusTech, he can be very immature some of the time.

Yes, we should ban him /s

 

6 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Just make everyone who wants an account have to pass an easy math question first

Such as 

Except that's not hard.  Kids will find out the answer  

4 minutes ago, straight_stewie said:

I agree, sort of. Age restrictions largely work over at Big Blue. How many 10 year olds do you see on Facebook? Besides that, if people know (or just think) that they'll be banned for being underage, they'll be more likely to behave appropriately, and actually contribute to the forum.

Things aren't so cut and dry. In large part age != maturity level, however age does have a bearring on at least two parts of maturity: Social maturity level and "self truth" level. In my experience, while people of all ages can exhibit maturity or a lack-thereof, young people are more likely to do or say things that are socially unacceptable and more likely to have a "holier than thou" attitude. The latter of which is very detrimental to a tech website where getting accurate information quickly can be very important. If there are a bunch of people running around disseminating false information, it reduces the reputation (and therefore the worth) of the entire site.

 

I agree there's the reputation aspect and generally "healthy community" aspect to look after, but again, the root cause of things that eat away at that would be, generally, people causing problems.  Sure, their age might affect how likely they are to be an issue, but at the end of the day it would be their behaviour we admire or condemn, not their age.

[Nineshadow]

1 minute ago, Minibois said:

DeviantArt also has a minimum age of 13, it doesn't work though. Even still, many people over that age still are childish or annoying.

That's because it's how the law works.

All websites need to get parental consent when they collect children's personal information. In the US, the age cut-off is 13, so most sites just go with that.

 

But really, I don't think there's any personal information collected here so that's probably why it isn't a required thing here.

 

Also, to :

5 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Just make everyone who wants an account have to pass an easy math question first

Such as 

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Nineshadow said:

 

That just checks that you're not a bot, not that you're over 12

[vanished]

1 minute ago, Nineshadow said:

 

But really, I don't think there's any personal information collected here so that's probably why it isn't a required thing here.

 

Also there is this little part in the CoC:

Quote

Privacy

• In the interests of personal safety we do not permit the posting of personal information other than your own. This includes usernames, email addresses etc.
• We highly discourage the posting of and will actively remove any personal information of persons under the age of 16

 

[straight_stewie]

7 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

Come on, you've got to make it harder than that. Anyone could see that the answer is -34

Select which graph represents F(x) = x + (1-(x%1))

  

 

[vanished]

1 minute ago, straight_stewie said:

Select which graph represents F(x) = x - (1-(x%1))
 

come on if they could solve the first one they'd solve that

[colonel_mortis]

Just now, straight_stewie said:

Select which graph represents F(x) = x - (1-(x%1))

  

 

I was thinking more along the lines of a textarea with

Quote

Let a and b be positive integers such that ab+1 divides a² + b². Show that (a² + b²)/(ab+1) is the square of an integer

(from https://www.imo-official.org/problems.aspx)

[iamdarkyoshi]

People need a maturity age. I'm physically 18, but I act... well.. Yeah.

 

Moving on.

 

OP, if you have issues with someone, report them.

[Bouzoo]

I knew this would come in handy sooner or later

 

 

Edit: While we are at it, I still believe that having a $1 registration fee would be the best anti spam method out there, not talking about giveaways but about trolls and *I'll post 20 threads in some eastern language* spam people

Edited September 6, 2016 by Bouzoo