Children and accountability

How much of it is on the individual kid, how much on their parents and how much is apparantly on everybody else?

There have been a couple threads recently where minors actively participated in what amounts to a flame war. Agressive back and forth with another member or members about the topic of a thread or some unrelated subject that ends up being brought into it.

During these, the age of the member was inevitabally brought up in order to defend the actions of the child and further villify the actions of whoever was opposed to the child. Conversationally... not from a moderation standpoint, as far as I know but I also haven't really looked at it that deeply.

But I am left wondering where the accountability is.

My take on minors and Fauna is pretty much as follows... If they're here and supervised, they won't be posting anything that is an issue. If they're here and unsupervised then their parents have apparantly decided that their child is mature enough and responsible enough to handle the site's content and that they should therefor be judged by the same standards anyone would apply to any other (adult) poster. Which means they should be culpable for defending their position, for their choice of words, for their actions both positive and negative. If they make an insightful post, they should be given credit. If they participate in a flame war, violate the standards for behavior and language, they should be subject to the same punitive measures and attitudes that an adult would be.

Fauna has a good number of active users who are under the age of eighteen, most of which behave in such a manner that someone coming along who was unfamiliar with the individual wouldn't assume a specific age. There are some however who seem to be persistantly in the thick of the kind of carnage that gets adult users hit with signifigant warning points, temporary suspensions and all the associated negative ramifications to their credibility and reputation... but those repeat offenders will fall back behind the sheltering shield of their age and escape the brunt of the consequences for their actions.

Again, just to stress the point- this is less of a moderation thing and far more of a general attitude of the membership subject... but I'd really like to know when I became responsible for coddling someone else's mentally deficient offspring through their animal husbandry blunders. Or when flagrant and overt insults became something to overlook just because they were uttered by a seventeen year old. Or when lies and spurious arguments and misinformation all became okay because they were being spouted by a junior high student.

What happened to the treatment of Hydrogen Cricket? Where did that response go and why did it leave?

Amen There Seamus

I kind of agree with some things but, to me it seems like youre blaming alot of it on the minors. Which is not always true. The "responsible" adults on here are also to blame. And as for the fact it seems you reffered to me a little in your post. That person decided him self to get temporarly suspended. It wasn't my fault.

Are we, as adults, not allowed to spank the brats, and send them to bed anymore?

You are. I noticed a lot of Americans don't do it. Maybe thats why this stuff happens. Excluding me...

I agree with you Seamus.

But what I've noticed is that in most of the instances where a minor is involved in an altercation, there's usually an adult(s) who has chosen to act like a minor.

Originally Posted by monkeywrench133

I agree with you Seamus.

But what I've noticed is that in most of the instances where a minor is involved in an altercation, there's usually an adult(s) who has chosen to act like a minor.

Originally Posted by monkeywrench133

I agree with you Seamus.

But what I've noticed is that in most of the instances where a minor is involved in an altercation, there's usually an adult(s) who has chosen to act like a minor.

No doubt there. Or... act in a manner which is inappropriate to say the least. I was searching for a way to explain my position without it being seen as taking a stab at people specifically because of their age, I don't want to lump the quality human beings who just happen to be teenagers in with the problem individuals.

And IloveSnakes1234, trust me when I say that if I meant to call you out specifically for any behavior I saw as being worth yelling about, it would have been by name and there wouldn't be any ambiguity about it. Subtlety isn't a strong point for me.

Originally Posted by Seamus Haley

Subtlety isn't a strong point for me.

I never would have guessed that.

I debated on writing on this subject.
For me personally as a mother, I do not let my kids come on here as it is an open arena. Although we are trying to clean up the forums someone can still ignite so I choose to keep my kids off here and just stick to websites without forums to write in OR like I did with my one daughter, monitor it.
I have a responsibility that is to my child AND the people that she could possible affect or be affected by. IF I were to let my child on here I would make sure her age was clear and that it was on each post she wrote in, that way if someone started something with her they wouldn't be able to say they didn't know her age.
I see the computer as a privilage to be earned. If one of my kids were disrespectful they have then lost that right AND unless an adult was so rude I would say, "Hey you were big enough to start it...", if the adult was fully aware of the age and stooped to levels I may step in.
Problem is, we don't know how old the people on here are, and what of the BOI? We can clean up everything to the best of our ability but the BOI IS going to get rough.
Of course then again, if an adult is rude to my child and she lets me know she can handle it I may just let her (I would still watch over it). My children learn that disrespectful people are not to be respected just because they are older.
This is just me though, and I monitor when it comes to the internet where they go.