Why getdare changed its age policy?
 

So on the request TorD section I have been browsing some of the early posts from when this site was starting and have noticed that there were quite a lot of users under 18 who weren't banned, and openly admitted to staff that they were under 18. Do any members or staff know why and when the policy changed to 18+ on getdare?

For the record, the only reason I ask is because I know a couple of people who are 17 and want to join however are unable to due to being under 18

I have no idea when it was changed, but im going to take a wild guess and say it was probably due to the obvious legal and moral issues having underage users participating on a site devoted to sexual things presented.

Part of your post got cut off but I would agree with the previous poster.. this site is very adult-themed. Legally it's better to just keep it 18+.

The age policy change took place several years ago. I don't remember the exact date and I would have to dig deep to find it but off the top of my head I think it was around 4-5 years. And the reason, if you lurk and read most of the posts, should be quite obvious :)

Initially when getDare was launched it was just a small forum devoted to Truth or Dare with teenage members and the old posts were quite tame in comparison to today. And the whole S/M area didn't exist at that point. But over time, members got older, the site grew bigger and attracted people with different interests, including BDSM. That's where we had to make the change.

Good point, however why couldn't there be a strictly under 18 blog, where if a user mentions anything sexual they receive an infraction or ban

It happened around May/June 2011 from recollection that the site switched to be 18+ for new users.

I'll just be honest, Getdare changed it's policy because a bunch of people kept bitching and reported the forum so Depp had to change the rules and policy of GetDare.

(hope I don't get into any trouble for saying this but it is true xD)

I have read a lot of things about it, and it is not just because people complained, it is because engaging underage people online in sexual activity is so many kinds of illegal.

I joined this site when I was 15.. used it quite alot back then and then left for a long time only popping on very infrequently. it was a very very different site all that time ago and wasn't intended as a place to swap sexuality it was a database of truth or dares with a forum attached to talk about them. The over sexualisation of the site as it got more popular was quite clear when 16 year olds were trying to form only BDSM relationships which as said above starts to become highly grey on the legality scale.

If anything it was a required moved simply to protect anyone who was using the site from inadvertently partaking in illegal activities.

It's nice for me to read this history, as a new person. I found this site recently from a web search for BDSM related topics. That colors my perception of what the site is about. I guess it's been rough for the younger folks who are into non-sexual TorD and have to deal with so much focus on age-restricted content.

I've been apart of the site for a long time now. The site was fun in the early years, but with the over-sexualized dares and activities taking place with people who were not of age, it became a legal issue that needed to be changed. Although now things are a bit better, there are still many people who go well beyond the normal dare and activities.

This reply intrigues me as it gives the opinion that things are better now than before. Please could you elaborate on how bad things were at the worst of times?

Well, I can't say it's much better now, but it is certainly much different. At the worst times, I'd say that under-aged people would be trying to be dominants and submissives of older people as well as people just giving out obscene and outrageous dares to those who were underaged. It just wasn't a good thing and it's best to leave it in the past.

I sometimes think: does this age policy actually work? Well, of course it does. People are more aware when registering that they must be over 18 years old. But this doesn't mean that underaged people don't register at all. Actually, the funny part is that I sometimes recognize underaged people. Well, most of the times this is just a hunch, so I can't really report it.

Scenario... what happens sometimes.

This happens when I interacted with someone who was underaged without knowing it. Simply because he/she lied about his/her age while asking for dares and such. Then after a while I see them again, but this time with a banned account. This takes my interest, since I gave him/her dares, so I go to the ban list and search the account. Reason: underaged. Well, ok than. I never ask for pictures or proof, although a report is always likeable.

Later, probably weeks or a couple of months after the person is banned, I find them back. Well, it's just a hunch. But because this hunch, I take my loop and put in on my screen. I go to both the accounts, the banned one and the new one and compare them. Look at that... Most of the likes are the same and somehow this person lives in the same country as the banned person. And... she is eighteen years old, exactly the age when you are permitted to join getDare.

I don't report these people, because I don't want to bring any one in trouble. The new person says that he/she is 18 years old, so who am I to say that she lies. I think it's his/her own responsibility, not mine.

On the side not: I sometimes read old posts. And so I found out that moderators can compare IP's from multiple accounts with each other. So if the person in thie scenario really is the same as the person from the banned account, then the moderators will find out soon.

I hope I don't break any rules doing what's written here. From what I know, I don't think any of this breaks a rule, because (officially) the person of the new account is 18 years old.

The site was once a totally different place. It has developed a lot over the years. Once the site got big enough to attract attention from concerned 3rd parties, Depp had to implement certain definitive rules to ensure the security of the site (the main one being age restriction). That is the simple truth. In all honesty, at the time, it was not the path that we necessarily wanted the site to take, but it was the easiest and safest path and it seems to have worked out pretty well regardless.