Kids surf sites with ‘explicit sex, violence’
p2pnet news view | Kids & Kartels:- Alongside the ‘news’ that the Vevo movie thingy is actually an advertising machine comes another startling revelation: “Even a minimally savvy youngster can figure out how to access violent or explicitly sexual content in some virtual or Internet worlds”.
So says a Federal Trade Commission survey quoted by Reuters.
“In its survey of online worlds, where users create digital alter egos called avatars and interact with other users’ avatars, the commission found that seven of the worlds with the most explicit sex and violence set a minimum age of 13 and an eighth set a minimum age of 18,” says the story.
Kids below the age of 13 who tried to register at five of the sites were rejected, but although Kaneva and There.com did the same, they “immediately permitted users to re-register as an adult from the same computer,” the report says.
Red Light Center, “whose home page contains nudity,” sets a minimum age of 18 but, “also allowed users who were rejected as too young to immediately try again with a different birthday,” says the story, adding when the FTC selected it for the review, “demographic data from comScore, Inc. indicated that nearly 16 percent of Red Light Center’s users were under age 18″.
Only nudity? It has a lot more than that — and without any need for registration.
Adds Reuters, “As part of the report, which was requested by Congress, the commission recommended virtual world operators develop better mechanisms to screen out children and ensure that adults in these virtual worlds do not interact with children or teens. The commission also urged better enforcement of the online world’s rules regarding profanity in sites aimed at children, and training for community enforcers or moderators to enforce any rules.”
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advertising machine – Vevo wasn’t created for consumers!, December 10, 2009
Reuters – Savvy kids can access explicit online worlds: FTC, December 10, 2009
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December 11th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
zomg ban the internets immediately
December 11th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
“Red Light Center, “whose home page contains nudity,” sets a minimum age of 18 but, “also allowed users who were rejected as too young to immediately try again with a different birthday,” says the story, adding when the FTC selected it for the review, “demographic data from comScore, Inc. indicated that nearly 16 percent of Red Light Center’s users were under age 18″.”
What if an adult makes a mistake and enters the wrong age? Should the site then bar them from creating an account because they made a mistake? Should it make them send in a copy of a photo ID? If so, what’s to stop kids from scanning their parent’s license and sending it in? Require a credit card number? A lot of kids today have their own credit card, or they’ll just ask to borrow their parents’ card, saying they want to order something innocent, then use it to register with the site. Short of meeting each user in person, there’s really no practical way to keep kids out if they want to get in.
Besides, there’s no registration at all required to use Google and you can find much more explicit photos of real people than what these virtual worlds offer. No registration is required for file sharing software and you can use that to download full-length porn films of every fetish you can imagine.
December 13th, 2009 at 1:30 am
OMG! Sex is evil!