News: FTC Says Virtual Worlds Bad For Minors

[News Bot]

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; Employ a staff of specially trained moderators who are equipped to take swift action against rule violations."


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

[Ze-Tomb]

Ok now, this would be a harder thing to do than you could ever think. Barrens chat? That stuff isn't bad.

Use more effective age-screening mechanisms to prevent children from registering in adult virtual worlds

Well to be honest, this really isn't a viable solution, people can lie about their age to play a game/virtual world. I mean unless you monitor all of the DoBs they put in and watch their chat to see if or when they slip up and tell their real age, it really isn't going to do much.

Use or enhance age-segregation techniques to make sure that people interact only with others in their age group

This idea could work if a proper age could be tagged to all of the users of a game, because many people will lie just so they can get into the game without and parental consent stuff.

Re-examine language filters to ensure that they detect and eliminate messages that violate rules of behavior in virtual worlds;

Language filters are alread in place for alot of games that minors are likely to play, but it would seem that those filters are circumnavigated by a bit of 1337speak or some new words.

Provide more guidance to community enforcers in virtual worlds so they are better able to review and rate virtual world content,

A virtual world can be reveiwed and rated without guidance. There are people who do this for a living and in my opinion, they don't need guidance to do their jobs.

report potential underage users and report any users who appear to be violating rules of behavior;

Now, you will look around at the player bases of common games where the age limit is either 13+ or 15+ and you will find alot of people underage. The thing about this is if a company were to ban them for being underage, then they would miss out on many customers. Reporting users who appear to be violating the RoB, that doesn't happen often sadly, because those games don't have the right community for it to work properly.

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.

People form the FTC shouldn't be worrying about what is on virtual worlds and games. I mean to me this report sounds like a joke, just stating the obvious. If you didn't know Johnny could find dirty stuff on a couple of games then you're in for a big surprise.

[MarieWoodell]

My general thoughts on this are little Johnny can find much worse elsehwere on the internet without too much effort internet games and virtual worlds are the last of parent's concerns.

[Ze-Tomb]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

My general thoughts on this are little Johnny can find much worse elsehwere on the internet without too much effort internet games and virtual worlds are the last of parent's concerns.

Exactly!

And if Johnny finds a certain website, which is deemed the most evil in the world... well Johnny could lose all sense of morality and respect for everyone.

[thoreau]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

My general thoughts on this are little Johnny can find much worse elsehwere on the internet without too much effort internet games and virtual worlds are the last of parent's concerns.

There are some important differences between virtual worlds and other bad sites - like porn.

First, in virtual worlds (and chat rooms qualify as virtual worlds) there is a greater opportunity for a child to be groomed by some sort of sexual predator. To make the point, there is a big difference between a web site where a 12 year old looks at porn - and a virtual world where a 12 year old's avatar sits beside and interacts with another avatar.

The FTC's report is simply a call to parents to be aware of what their child is doing.

[MarieWoodell]

Originally Posted by thoreau

There are some important differences between virtual worlds and other bad sites - like porn.

First, in virtual worlds (and chat rooms qualify as virtual worlds) there is a greater opportunity for a child to be groomed by some sort of sexual predator. To make the point, there is a big difference between a web site where a 12 year old looks at porn - and a virtual world where a 12 year old's avatar sits beside and interacts with another avatar.

The FTC's report is simply a call to parents to be aware of what their child is doing.

True but you can get that on msn skype etc. I don't think virual worlds are the worst offenders. Maybe part of things yeah but a good parent should know about all of them not just virtual worlds.

[Vitas Antronius]

Originally Posted by MarieWoodell

True but you can get that on msn skype etc. I don't think virual worlds are the worst offenders. Maybe part of things yeah but a good parent should know about all of them not just virtual worlds.

You're right Marie. I don't think you have been exposed to the seedier side of Second Life (they might have cleaned things up by now, but somehow I doubt it.) There are really foul things that happen.

There are some real perverts out there - kids are stalked and even die.

I am against government intrusion but I agree with thoreau that I hope this causes parents to pay attention.

In a game as fine as GW I witnessed a minor actually say his age and hometown! I had to private message the kid to warn him away when someone started chatting him up about details about his hometown. Maybe it was nothing, but I was happy to see the kid logout mid sentence after he obviously had a chance to read my PM. Maybe others PM'ed him too - I hope so.

Don't misunderstand me or get mad at me - I usually don't interfere in people's convos and I'm cool with kids playing MMOs. But that really creeped me out. So I always keep a protective eye out.



/\

[Ze-Tomb]

Originally Posted by Vitas Antronius

You're right Marie. I don't think you have been exposed to the seedier side of Second Life (they might have cleaned things up by now, but somehow I doubt it.) There are really foul things that happen.

There are some real perverts out there - kids are stalked and even die.

I am against government intrusion but I agree with thoreau that I hope this causes parents to pay attention.

In a game as fine as GW I witnessed a minor actually say his age and hometown! I had to private message the kid to warn him away when someone started chatting him up about details about his hometown. Maybe it was nothing, but I was happy to see the kid logout mid sentence after he obviously had a chance to read my PM. Maybe others PM'ed him too - I hope so.

Don't misunderstand me or get mad at me - I usually don't interfere in people's convos and I'm cool with kids playing MMOs. But that really creeped me out. So I always keep a protective eye out.



/\

Good on ya mate, you did something good.
Coulda saved that kid from some very nasty stuff. +rep

Yeah I kinda left SL because of all those perverts and what not.

[MarieWoodell]

Originally Posted by Vitas Antronius

You're right Marie. I don't think you have been exposed to the seedier side of Second Life (they might have cleaned things up by now, but somehow I doubt it.) There are really foul things that happen.

There are some real perverts out there - kids are stalked and even die.

I am against government intrusion but I agree with thoreau that I hope this causes parents to pay attention.

In a game as fine as GW I witnessed a minor actually say his age and hometown! I had to private message the kid to warn him away when someone started chatting him up about details about his hometown. Maybe it was nothing, but I was happy to see the kid logout mid sentence after he obviously had a chance to read my PM. Maybe others PM'ed him too - I hope so.

Don't misunderstand me or get mad at me - I usually don't interfere in people's convos and I'm cool with kids playing MMOs. But that really creeped me out. So I always keep a protective eye out.



/\

Yeah I think in that case it was wise to warn them. Most kids usually have enough sense not to be too trusting with private details like that though.

I have also played second life a little and I'm aware of what goes on there. I just think it goes on in a lot of other places on the internet too. It's not just virtual worlds. We have to teach our children to be careful with their details whatever they are doing instead of worrying about what game they are playing. It makes them more sensible adults rather than removing the decisions from them and then watching them do really stupid things when they stop listening to their parents.

[Ze-Tomb]

You know, as a kid myself, I have found it easy to keep details to myself out of COMMON SENSE. This is one of the things have kept me safe surfing through the waves and torrents of the internet. I find it appalling in my opinion that kids my age, younger and even older, do not have the common sense to keep themselves safe on the internet because they lack the common sense or basic knowledge of online safety, I mean, hell, is it so hard to just keep these things to yourself? Is it so hard to believe that the person on the other end of the conversation might not be who they say they are?

Now I kow I am putting it a bit harsh when I say this but, minors who think it is ok to yell out their personal details to the world and to strangers need some common sense jabbed into them for acting so stupid.

Yeah this rant is kinda OT but I just want to respond to the above post.

But really, the only reason Virtual Worlds can be more dangerous for Johnny is because it involves another person who could be, for all we know, a pedophile thinking to himself "I just hit the jackpot!" and poor Johnny is thinking "This kid is the best friend I've ever had, can't wait until we meet in real life!".

Online safety, in my experience, was taught to us in I.T. straight away at the start of each year. It is the unfortuent people who don't listen that suffer.

My 2 HQD.