Full exposure to the internet ****s up your head, especially when you’re young, but it most certainly toughens you up as well. I joined FW at age 14, before that, I had never seen a shock image, and still used UrbanDictionary and YouTube as my main source for memes. I knew ED and 4chan existed, but never visited them out of lack of interest.

I would be a completely different person had I never visited here, I’d be a lot shyer, less social, more fearful, less skilled at speaking irl, et cetera.

Of the question of letting my hypothetical child play it, I’m on the side of TUBSWEETIE, that when he/she can bypbum my webfilter, they’re ready for the internets.

Evil Trout Posted:

It totally depends on the kid. My niece cries at the sharks in Finding Nemo and she’s 7. When I was 7, I was watching predator and other Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.

I think 17+ is probably the “ideal” age for Forumwarz but some teens are clearly mature enough to play it at a younger age. Some people in theory 20’s probably wouldn’t like the offensive content. So age is only a loose guide.

I’d be highly suspicious of letting a 10 year old play it though.

Just ran into some fridge logic…

What do you tell your niece you do for a living?

This is actually a hard one for me. My first exposure to the internet was when I was probably about 10 and my dad let me play LORD on a local BBS. I grew up with access to the internet unfiltered, although it wasn’t unsupervised until I was about 14. Despite this I had never seen shock until I came to this site. I didn’t want to see it, so I didn’t look for it. That simple really.

I voted 16-18 and that’s simply because of the amount of shock in RP. Any younger then that and I think it just wouldn’t be appropriate for me as a parent to condone access to some of the imagery presented. As for emotional maturity it would really depend on my child. Of course, if he’s stupid enough at that age to let a few trolls get under his skin or have access to his personal information I’ve got a lot bigger problems to worry about then whether or not he has access to a game that has shock in the message boards.

The truth of the matter is that kids with an internet connection have access to a lot worse then what this place has to offer.

16-18. Old enough to get a job, marry, drive a car, carry a rifle and die for her country… she’s old enough to play FWZ.

For me this isn’t theoretical, my stepkid’s about to turn 14. No way I’d unleash her on y’all, or want to see y’all unleashed on her.

And the best filter is “hey, what’s that?” but it never hurts to have a technological backup. I wish she’d show enough interest in computers to try bypbuming ‘em though, it might make my life more interesting. Log in to see images!

DarkDespair5 Posted:

Pr0n didn’t kill me. Shock didn’t kill me (It shocked me the first time, though!). It won’t kill my kids either. I find it’s better to prepare people for the world than to hide them from it. It really depends on who you’re talking about though. Some could watch SWAP.AVI with no problems, while others could be so impressionable that a Mario game could cause irreparable harm. (Yes, even adults!)

There’s my $0.02.

Your argument makes your very young age glaringly apparent. The argument is not, and never was, about physical harm or death caused by shock imagery. The problem is mental and psychological damage caused by exposure to shocking, or fundamentally improper materials at too young an age. That type of damage can not be measured or told until that child reaches adulthood. If you are under the age of 15, and I bet very highly that you are, the damage done to you will not be seen until you reach adulthood, at least. Of course, you will yell and scream about how mature you are, and how none of this has affected you. The problem is, if it has affected you, you would be the last person who would be able to tell.