Let’s stop claiming to be an 18+ community

[The Wrench]

In the cursed male nipple thread good points were made

We aren’t an 18+ community we don’t actually vet in any way for minors

Neither does literally anywhere else on the internet, to be fair.

Should we really be basing all of our decisions around people who are breaking the rules? Otherwise, what's the point of the rule?

Why should we claim to be an 18+ community? We don’t vet and we don’t enforce rules like we are an 18+ community. We should just be honest with ourselves and go full Goonstation.

[Mice World]

MSO's stance on rule 9

[Vekter]

I think it's worth it to continue using the rule for now as it does do what it says on the tin. I guess if we really want to get technical we can change it to "You must act in a mature manner to play here" but that gets way, way too subjective. I don't think we should remove the rule.

E: I do agree with MSO (I know right?) that it's a good idea to not go hard-line on the rule, but my point is that it mostly serves as a decent filter to keep fairly young people out of the community. Personally, I could go the rest of my time online without knowingly interacting with a minor, so I think it's a great idea and should stay.

► Show Spoiler

Before anyone comes at me about this, I'm not saying anyone who doesn't want the rule is a pedophile, I'm saying "I don't enjoy the company of younger people and I feel like it's better if they aren't included in our community".

[sinfulbliss]

No fuck that. I do not want to have to stifle the things I say and do because the rule is adjusted to allow 15 year olds that “act mature,” so now I have to treat the game as if it’s PG-13.

If someone decides not to follow the rules and play underaged, that’s on them, but as soon as the rule is removed the responsibility to worry about the children is on everyone else. No thanks.

[Mice World]

No fuck that. I do not want to have to stifle the things I say and do because the rule is adjusted to allow 15 year olds that “act mature,”

If MSO's post from 2018 is still accurate then this is how things, to a degree, already are. Not saying it should be but even if this restriction was removed I doubt you'd need to change much, as we already have rule 8 and I can't really think of anything else that is "sensitive" to minors.

[blackdav123]

if we dont allow kids we're like 10x less likely to have to deal with groomers

minors shouldnt be public about their personal lives on random corners of the internet

its the same as how we deal with evaders. if you dont get caught then there never was a problem to begin with.

[sinfulbliss]

No fuck that. I do not want to have to stifle the things I say and do because the rule is adjusted to allow 15 year olds that “act mature,”

Not saying it should be but even if this restriction was removed I doubt you'd need to change much, as we already have rule 8 and I can't really think of anything else that is "sensitive" to minors.

Innuendo and sex jokes

[Mice World]

Innuendo and sex jokes

Are fairly common in most media and aren't inherently harmful (If they understand the joke then it doesn't matter). I'd assume that if minor is playing ss13 they have unrestricted internet access and at that point there's nothing you can do to protect them.

I don't believe the "think of the kids" outlook is needed. They shouldn't be playing ss13 anyway because a fair amount of minors are quite annoying and that doesn't work well in an online roleplaying game.

[CMDR_Gungnir]

Innuendo and sex jokes

Are fairly common in most media and aren't inherently harmful (If they understand the joke then it doesn't matter). I'd assume that if minor is playing ss13 they have unrestricted internet access and at that point there's nothing you can do to protect them.

I don't believe the "think of the kids" outlook is needed. They shouldn't be playing ss13 anyway because a fair amount of minors are quite annoying and that doesn't work well in an online roleplaying game.

To be fair, there are admins who will bwoink you for harmless, low-tier innuendo already. Without the 18+ rule, that would probably skyrocket.

[Farquaar]

I think inviting a bunch of kids and teenagers onto the servers is a great way to reduce fun for both players and admins alike.

[sinfulbliss]

Innuendo and sex jokes

Are fairly common in most media and aren't inherently harmful (If they understand the joke then it doesn't matter). I'd assume that if minor is playing ss13 they have unrestricted internet access and at that point there's nothing you can do to protect them.

I don't believe the "think of the kids" outlook is needed. They shouldn't be playing ss13 anyway because a fair amount of minors are quite annoying and that doesn't work well in an online roleplaying game.

To be fair, there are admins who will bwoink you for harmless, low-tier innuendo already. Without the 18+ rule, that would probably skyrocket.

Yeah this was why I brought it up. Flirting and sex jokes among consenting adults is fine, but if a kid’s in the mix shit starts to get real weird real fast.

I also think kids shouldn’t be playing SS13 anyway. Finish highschool and go to prom. Socialize with people. Your brain is literally still developing and carving out the social intelligence you’ll be operating on for the rest of your life. God forbid you’re socialized by TG.

[Rohen_Tahir]

This would not be beneficial to the community in any way shape or form.

[kieth4]

Cringe

[vect0r]

Nope.

[Misdoubtful]

Honestly...

No thanks.

[Timberpoes]

I get the agenda behind this policy thread. Ultimately the headmins closing the thread without any real reponse is pretty much admitting that we're 18+ in name only. But that really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Do we have some Vincent Adultmans kicking around the community? You bet.

But I think we expect that everyone is either an adult, or if they're not to instead act mature enough to pass for one.

And the reality of SS13 is that if what we went through an independent review board for age classification we've got:
Drug references
Alcohol references
Various types of violence
Blood and gore
Mature humour
... You get the idea.

There's no way we'd land at anything other than 18+.

And within the community we're the same. We don't hold our punches when talking to eachother for fear that someone reading in could be under 18.

It's a label. A loosely enforced label. A label for people from the "outside" to give them an idea of the kind of themes and topics the game and our community involves.

And very rarely is it anything more than that.