I’m a member of some message boards. Two of them, members have children posting on them. The children are young teens. On another board, one member revealed they are ten years old. :eek: Now, none of these boards are like The Dope. Cursing isn’t allowed on them. People don’t really discuss adult issues. They’re hobby boards. However, I don’t really feel comfortable posting on that board any more.
So is there age that’s too young for most message boards (I’m not talking about ones geared to children)? Would you want to be on the same board as a ten year old?
I think it depends. I’m not willing to say that there is such a thing as too young, provided the poster is willing to adhere to community standards of behavior.
I’m a poster on a message board where one of the groups I’m active has several children posting on an erratic basis. I “know” who all their mothers are, and can kind of tell that the child posters are children. My job is to treat them with respect and an extra dash of patience. If the number of children increased, would I be happy in that group? Hard to say. I wouldn’t want to be part of a message board aimed at children, but I’m ok with well-behaved children posting on a message board I’m on.
My understanding is that there’s a good reason that many websites set thirteen as the minimum age. Certain US federal laws require the websites to take special care with the personal information of children younger than thirteen. For that reason, it’s usually just simpler not to allow anyone that young.
I realize some of you make think I’m over thinking this, but I try to think of my online self as an extension of offline self. In that, I don’t hide behind my screen and try not go anything (too lol) outlandish online. So, if I don’t hang out with ten years offline. I don’t want to “hang out” with them online. I agree, 13 is a good age limit.
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