reason help: I think that people under the age of 18 should not be allowed - Help.com

That’s what I was saying at first…but then they just start to post nonsense questions and threads on the main site anyways, so it’s a lose-lose situation either way.

It’s all good and well saying that they shouldn’t be here (and i’m sure there is plenty I wouldn’t want children to see or hear) but what they see and hear is all put there by so-called adults. Adults who should know better, who should be able to handle awkward questions and accept that there ARE children in chat and deal with that accordingly. We can’t stop them from being here but we can modify OUR reactions and actions towards them. We don’t have to rise to their questions, we don’t have to respond to them at all. If they wind you up then they win. It like TV, don’t complain about it if you don’t like it, just switch it off.

just like a toddler, if you let them know you’re unaffected by thier childish ways, they’ll realize it sooner or later and move on….
might not work so easily in this case, but i believe that if we all collectively ignored them, and never let them get to us, then there’d be no real fun in acting stupid (or whatever) most the time younger people act out for attention, and there is almost always someone here to point it out to them that they are being immature, and that’s giving attention, even if it is negative…

i beleive they have a right to chat, and i actually thought this was brought up and i really thought they were going to make a ‘teen chat’ (but honestly dont know how much work that’d take, so i mean no offense to the programmers here) but if that’s not possible, maybe we can convince the the help.com staff to assign a ‘chat room moderator’ that would basically be a random (regular) adult that’d like to stay and help with the chat that would be able to boot screennames outta chat or at least be able to inform a moderator of a problem.

i was in a place that the regulars (if enough of them voted to) could ban a user name for up to 24 hrs before they were allowed back on chat. granted, it can backfire if the adult is outnumbered by kids… but i truly dont believe anyone here would literally die if they were blocked outta chat for a day, not to mention they could get a moderator to help…

Nice idea, but how do you know if someone is an adult or a child (other than by their behaviour - and sadly that is often misleading) There is no proof of age required also, if ID’s are kicked out what is to stop them from coming back in with a new ID and starting all over again.

I think you missed Marco’s very correct point.

When we had the chat closed to anyone under 18, the home page would be filled with “do you want to chat, i’m sooooooooooooooooooooo bored” posts.

Additionally, since Help is trying to not only provide a venue for helping, but we’re also trying to build a back database that can be used to automatically help people in the future via “wisdom of the crowd” engineering. When you start to pollute the post/reply pool with these, often useless, chat posts it really hurts our ability to do that.

It’s coming very, very soon. Sooner than now, really.

wouldn’t be wonderful if the parents of the under 18’s were actually paying attention to what they are doing. although I did see a post from someone who got caught by their mother on helps chat area. and made her get off, after researching the chatters profiles. wow. just food for thought.

I hardly ever use the chat room but let me put in my two cents anyway ;). What if we had 2 chat rooms? One for under 18s and one for 18 and older? Just a thought… but it could help keep some personalities from clashing due to different levels of maturity…

chuyskywalker will have a post about this i am sure. he is working on it

I’m stuck in the middle here to be completely honest.

I don’t think kids under the age of 18 should chat, yes, But then again I met my boyfriend online in Talkcity.com when I was 17.
(Looking on it now, I think if I was in Talkcity.com at the age of 18 I am now–I still would’ve found him if it was meant to be. I’m saying just because something worked out for me, doesn’t mean it will for a 14 year old girl.)

-Again though- It would stop alot of drama between parent and their children, also reduce child predators actually getting to a kid (then again predators are on the streets, and could easily get to a child.)

To add, some people are in their 20’s and such and still aren’t as mature as say, a 12 year old.

So, I’m 50/50.

We tried chat and were repulsed by it for the most part. Would rather devote our time to those in need.

I don’t know. I mean they’re are some very mature people under the age of 18 that can chat plainly and have a good conversation. Just my views on the topic.

Well, over the next few weeks a few regulars will be getting promoted to “chat moderators” with the ability to revoke any given users access to the chat room. Hopefully that will help to alleviate the problem makers by simply shutting off their access.

Kids are great and its nice to hear a younger view… They are the future so you better get used to it….

Kids need help more then ever now… My vote is for the kids