Came across a scenario within our allience which made me think but also explain why I see recruiters requestion for over 18 only players.
As in everything online these days there are parental right controls, minor warnings etc designed to you when a minor is around.
My alliance is mostly made up of mature players who have families and work so our conversations have been accordingly so (no filth or rude stuff at all but adult adult stuff) then based on a single comment made during our chats by one of my members, it dawned on me that this person was very young so in asking that person thier age which they would answer to with a couple of other members we asked this person questions which eventually cornered him into revealing his age and it turned out it was only a 10yr old child.
As adults (as any parent can understand) we instantly changed the what we talked about.
This got me thinking on how this could be solved without violating personal detail laws or affecting players rights.
At the end of the day this is a game and the last thing we (at least I) would want to do is either kick someout out because thier a child but at the same there are things kids should need to hear and based on the fact that these are community chats which involve people from a diverse world arena getting together meaning chats can be about anything, I feel itās important to know when a minor is around.
So came up with a couple of suggestions which would at least warn others when a minor is on without providing player details to anyone which are
- Have some sort of tiny icon or mark attached to that minors icon which would warn others that this is a minor.
- Within the allience panel where it displays the list of members, under the members username, next to where it shows members rights have a word or icon showing that is a minor.
Now this can be set in the background to 13/15 or whatever SG feels is appropriate within the laws.
Now I know Iām going to get responses here like, well watch what you say, keep your chats about the game or something like that but we all know that within a community chat area discussions are not always what should be heard by 10yr olds/minors and any parent will understand what I am talking about here.
I personally have seen the type of conversations which are being had in the chatrooms and although not rude they shouldnāt be for minors ears and by warning there is a minor present adults would then be able to watch what say.
Anyway it was just a thought which, like I said concerned me as a parent abd thought Iād put it out to you all to see if itās a valid point and take it from there.
Cheers