Should the Internet have More Age Restrictions?

[Sir Hugsalot 9,348]

Not necessarily. For one, you should agree that a 10 year old should not have access to explicit adult content. One way is to freaking ask the ISP to block access from upstream in the first place, and this solves some but not all problems. But the best way is to have the parents have their own passwords for their own computers (Honestly it's not that hard), give the kid a separate computer in a common room and not in their own room, and freaking educate the child about internet safety.

 

To think that some parents believe that children can handle such content is B***s**t. Watching mature content at too young an age gives false expectations that are most likely never going to be met.

 

The kid may not know his consequences, but and if the parents fail to enforce good behavior early, the result is pretty consistent: You have a typical rebellious, authority-hating, defensive brat who lives on only to be an even more defensive brat as an adult. See Tumblr's "wonderful" Social Justice blogs for more information. I'll leave it for the reader to find out about that.

Yes, but I am talking about blocking entire access to internet, not to porn sites. Thing is - no restriction when it comes to porn will ever be helpful if parents will not pay attention to what their kids are doing in first place. And - I am not sure how is it where You live, but here parents simply don't care. Not to mention - even if not at home children can find this kind of stuff IN SCHOOL when they talk with friends. No restriction will help here but proper education, both for parents and for children. 

[Arctic Night 884]

Yes and no. I'm all for more age restrictions, but what the UK is trying to do is just... Not smart. Requesting a credit card for adult material is just trading malicious content for identity theft. 

[pony.colin 156]

How would such a thing really be enforced through law? (Because i would be really suspicious of what country or institution would have that much power to enforce such a law). 

 

Isn't what made the internet the special communication hubbub it is today - because it's unrestricted access (mostly anyways) and not being governed by some major institution inserting laws of what can or cannot be published?  Making it really the bastion of all free flowing information ? Which is also its drawback as well. 

 

The point is that, I know this is still not the greatest, but I seriously would still consider it the job of the parent to still educate their children about usage and how they would go about it.   Which really means, again, good parenting.

 

I get it as well - the internet also is such a modern thing - something that only originated back in the 80s (okay origins go back 1960s, but I think the 80s might be a start of when things got moving).  So it's truly the newest thing to tackle today when involving children.

[Shanks 10,816]

Adding more age restrictions is one of those things that sounds good on paper but I don't think would work in practice. In my teen years I have lied about my age to get into many NSFW sites and have never been caught. It is so easy to lie about your age to get into these places that it is a joke, as a matter of fact on one such site I am a member of right now lying about your age is the most common reason someone gets banned (they do get let back in once they are old enough though) and that dosen't even include all the people who slip by and never ever caught. Most of the people that were caught were only caught because they revealed that they were minors, I am not joking it is really that easy to not get caught. It is very easy for people to say that we should come up with a way to prove that someone is over 18 but exactly how are you able to realistically verify something like that over a computer screen? The only people that can stop kids from accessing content that may not be appropriate for them are their parents.

[Tired Brony 89]

I did not bust my own argument dummy butt. 

 

WATER is a basic human right,

 

POWER is is basic human right

 

SHELTER is a basic human right

 

We still have to pay for them. Your idea of what a basic human right is horribly skewed. 

 

Basically what you are saying is that just because you have to pay for it, it does not count as a human right. Well I got news for you. According to your logic. That would mean that human rights do not exist. Because even free speech isn't free. Even Breathing AIR is not free. 

 

There is nothing in our world that you get for free. It has a cost to someone out there and regardless of what it is. The bill factor does not make it any less important. 

 

I don't think you quite understand what a human right is. If those were true every country in the world would be a human rights violator for simply having homeless people exist. Are you purposing that we should all be paying for them to have a place to live?

 

As an added bonus here is a list of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights created by the U.N. It is more of a wishlist, not an official rule list that countries will be punished for not following.

 

http://www.samaritanmag.com/we-have-30-basic-human-rights-do-you-know-them

 

The internet is not any part of it, and last time I checked, the Supreme Court doesn't have the authority to decide that would affect the rights of every human in the world.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Tired Brony

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

It is very easy for people to say that we should come up with a way to prove that someone is over 18 but exactly how are you able to realistically verify something like that over a computer screen?

Let's say you're under 18 and you want to make money on Youtube.

Have you heard of Youtube monetization? One of the crucial requirements is that the Youtuber must be over 18 to apply. How does Google know your 18 if you use your parents name?

 

Well the solution is rather simple. Adsense sends you an IRS 1099, which is a record of your income, and sent to your address. They send in the form of a test check, and that test check must be linked to a bank account. If that bank account does not match the over 18 requirement, Google is notified, and they will deny your request. My friend had this happen trying to monetize gaming videos.

 

That's one way to tell if companies tell if someone behind the computer is under 18. It's REALLY hard to fake it when you involve cross examination from the IRS and Google.

 

I don't think the internet will link financial info for access anytime soon, and this applies only for situations where an under 18 year old is involving money in the process. I also think that the parents will notice if their kid "buys" NSFW content via transactions with their credit card. So it's a safe bet that anything involving money usually is out of reach of those under 18.

[Obstacle 1 21]

Age restrictions basically prolongs how long a child can go without finding out what the world is.

If a parent doesn't want their child to be traumatized, don't let them use the internet.

I mean, I've seen scary shit over my years. A thread on 4chan's /x/ board had a "What's the most disturbing thing you've ever read?", and the original post was a screencap of various posts on a gay forum, but with details too explicit to share anywhere else other than 4chan.

It's an inverse relation, where as you grow older, your shock reaction becomes more distant.

[BastementSparkle 20,326]

This is a very weird topic for me. I do think that parents should monitor their kids activity on the internet, and judge for themselves what is and is not appropriate for their child. I don't think they should shelter their kids entirely, but being a bit careful is good.

 

 On the other foot, my parents never bothered to pay any attention to what I was doing on the internet. I'm grateful for this as I don't think I would be who I am today if they had. I don't think I would be as accepting or as open minded. I don't think I would be as empathetic, and I think I would still have trouble dealing with criticism. I think the lack of parenting was helpful in my case.

 

 I'm not sure really. Kid's are people, and people are different. You can't treat them all exactly the same.

[Hovershy 3,814]

No the internet should be allowed for people of all ages.

Parental Controls are the key, my friend.

[Tired Brony 89]

OP, a very large portion of the brony population is under 18 and are bronys in the first place because of the internet. This rule will be kicking the fandom in the butt.

[Banul 3,831]

I think people overestimate the effect that seeing adult content has on a child.

 

True story:

When I was really young, I tried to get on my dad's hotmail email account, but spelled the web address "hot male" on accident, which took me to a gay porn site. I thought it was weird that people were "licking each other's wee wees" and moved on. It didn't ruin my life.

 

So while some age restrictions are good, I don't think we need more.

[XxConfusedUnicornxX 834]

I think the internet should smarten up. Like when you register, it'll need your birth certificate number or something. That way, the internet will know how old you REALLY are. It will help prevent 8 year olds from registering in sites they're not allowed on and stop them from watching porn. It annoys me how children below 13 can fake their age. There are some things that shouldn't be seen by children. The children today are just plain rude and have no manners! I understand you will be scared that hackers can look into your birth files and stuff but if someone is smart enough to do something like that, I think it'll help.

[GhostPony750 959]

Well, of course: as soon as there is a problem, put a shitload of laws. But I say nope!

 

If you put restrictions, the human being will only find a way around it a continue. I say don't touch the internet, there are better solutions. Proven by some studies, awareness campains are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more succesful than these silly laws. (seriously, let us use our brains!)

 

Also, the internet is like the only place we can be free, don't remove this to us.

[Frozen The Unicorn 484]

Unfortunatly Making a Law prohibiting Under 18s from accessing small site, would probably incriminate a lot of children. If the children are properly supervised and informed of the risks and dangers then they should be fine. Anyways, A Lot of sites would probably be effected as most sites these day that say "Child Safe" Are actually not, The internet is full of swearing and Sex.

[Gourgeist 262]

Yeah, no. There's no stopping teens from watching porn, or playing rated M games under age. Plus I'm pretty sure the government would have to monitor a lot more, which would piss a lot of people off.

[Starshine 16,334]

Some parts of the internet should require you to be older than a certain age before proceeding. I'm not talking about entertainment or news sites, but specifically the parts of the internet where you can find some of the more... questionable materials. Not just the 18+, mind you, but sites that should only cater to adults like marijuana dispensaries and those that would blatantly break laws (federal or not, it's not important which), these kind of sites should have a system to prevent underages from entering.