The age issue...

[plswrd]

As a new member, I'm sure this has been discussed before, but am I the only one to be a little worried about the number of minors using this place. Whilst open and free speech should be a definate, I worry on the number of people requesting minor sub/Dom relationships, webcams involved. Not only, the obvious worry of older people taking advantage of software than can disguise them as someone of a different age (fake web cameras etc.) but of the minors themselves being caught, and forced to give the information about their master or slave? seems like a media storm waiting to happen...
any views on this?

[SubMissChievous]

Right now, the slave/master area is reserved only to those who are 16+ and I understand that the staff members are working on making it 18+ in the future. But even with those forum rules a member can always lie about their age (although after a little conversation, it's almost always very easy to find out when they do...)

[soccercrazy1637]

u make some sense, a lot of things can happen on the web, who knows?:rolleyes:

[TheLittleStrawberry]

Well I'm not sure the master can get in trouble if his sub told him he/she is 18+... I mean.... It's not the master's fault that they got hold of a liar.

[Marc]

I think the response the TheLittleStrawberry's view is "Tough - you are over 18, they are under 16, you are the guilty party whether they told you they were over 16 or not"!

Yes, I'm worried about the fact that the system is open to abuse - hence I don't try to get involved in a potential long term Master/Slave commitment.

[TheLittleStrawberry]

Well honestly, there are much better sites than this one for long term Master/slave relationships.... Where you can be 99% sure that people are 18+.... But not how honest they are. Dishonest people are everwhere.

[guitarguy160]

Making the area 18+ wouldn't really be fair to countries where the legal age for sexual intercourse is 16+, would it? Britain, for example.

[plswrd]

but, for example, when it comes to one exposing oneself over a webcam, or indeed posting pictures of nakedness, the issue becomes (in the eyes of the law) pornography. If somebody in the UK was to be convicted of partaking in child pornography, their name would be added to a public sexual offenders register, and labelled as a pedophile.

Sobering thought, eh?

[Sweetupandown]

There's actually a lot of uncertainty about all of the age issues and legal issues for all of the reasons you guys brought up - it's nearly impossible to come up with a uniform code to govern all of it, especially within the slave/master or bdsm rule.

As far as the U.S., regulation is completely specific to your state. In most cases though I think that it would be safe with anyone over 16, especially if the older party is only a few years apart from the younger (e.g. a 19 year old and a 16 year old). If someone like me, however (24/m) , were to screw around with a 16 year old on cam either way (them watching me or vice versa) that is definitely very illegal and definitely something that would be prosecuted. I think in texas the age of consent is 17, some states its 16, and in some cases (with 2 diff. states involved, sometimes) the federal law might apply, it just all depends.

One warning, however - in this genre, free speech will not save you one bit. There is only one kind of free speech that is absolutely protected, and that is political If you're over age and get caught with a minor, YOU CARRY EVERY OUNZE OF LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY! The entire reason that they have ages of consent is to define when a teen is mature enough to volunteer themselves to engage in that kind of behavior. Before that (and this is just how it is, its not whether you agree with it or not) they're strictly off limits pure and simple. You can't blame it on them for lying, you can't blame it on them for initiating it, you're legally responsible for their age and for your actions regardless.



The thing about this site that I think makes it fantastic is the expression and discussion that kids of any age are having. Even though I'm in my early 20s, I had nothing like this when I was in high school so I had to repress it all. Now there are ways we can all talk about it, and I would politely ask everyone to be extremely cautious about the age thing when you start a new slave/master relationship so that all ages can continue to post without the moderators having to shut it down or forcing everyone to have to lie about their age.

[Sum]

indeed, it's a grey area i think the age for this section of the forum, should the site use an acceptable age of consent (16 as most countries have this as the age of consent or younger)
see this map http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/60/AOCWorldMap.png

Or should we look at people asking for cams which should be 18 or 21, personally i think there could be two rules, you can request a slave/master from 16 up, but until your 18 (or possibly even 21) you cannot offer or request cam or pics.

[sk0073r]

being under 18 myself i must say i kinda agree, but i believe at this age we should be responsable enough to make our own choses in this area - i mean its officially legal to have sex at my age, but yet its illegal for me to watch a porno... lol! but yea mabey a note to underage users, but not to kick us off or anything :P

[MasterPain]

in other sites i have been on there have been a confirmed 18+ board, there could be no lieing about ages because it required a photo holding your user name, and a government issued photo id(important numbers blanked out)

but then it takes the ability to be anonymous away but we are talking being exposed on webcam anyway!