Possibly worrying news

Myopic Aardvark · 02-04-2009 02:48 PM

Story here.

Does this mean that Ghostraptor et al will need to get a security check done?

What does it mean for official gaming websites in general?

And is it a piece of legislation designed to pander to the media and the idiots that read it(yes, I appreciate the irony), but not actually accomplish anything as everyone flees on mass to foreign server hosts?

These questions and more, now to be ignored fairly quickly, in a forum debate near you!

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khorak_EU · 02-04-2009 02:53 PM

This forum is for a game rated 16+, it is not a childrens site at all. So no. GR can have as many horrific sexual deviancy convictions as he likes.

As to the law, it is merely filling in a gap that would have been allowing convicted paedophiles to interact with children, which is bad. It's a good piece of legislation.

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FloatingFatMan · 02-04-2009 02:59 PM

CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

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Myopic Aardvark · 02-04-2009 03:04 PM

[ QUOTE ]
This forum is for a game rated 16+, it is not a childrens site at all. So no. GR can have as many horrific sexual deviancy convictions as he likes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many of our members have stated that they are younger than 16 in the past. The tricky thing with this law (like others, including the new Extreme Porn regulations in England and Wales) is policing it.

[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]

Why wouldn't existing websites be affected? Surely the whole point it to clamp down on unregistered moderators on forums where children post?

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Stasisesque · 02-04-2009 03:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]

Official? No.
Unofficial? Very possibly, unless the law states the owner of the thing (my brain has stopped working... the thing, like Invision and such - free to use forum software?) is liable. But I don't see very many companies going, "Ok, we'll accept responsibility for all our users!"

It's a good thing, though.

Big_Lunk_EU · 02-04-2009 03:08 PM

a CRB check takes very little work to have done, possibly even less than checking work references.
You give a name, DOB, NI number, and a few details like previous addresses, it gets sent off, and in several days the CRB send you back a little certificate stating you havent ever been cautioned for mollesting farm animals.

To be honest, i doubt this will cause much, if any, disruption to forums, and in my oppinion is a good idea.
Only those without the right to work with children should worry.

Extremus · 02-04-2009 03:09 PM

[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]
Jesus Christ, yes, because a CRB check is so freaking horrific.

The vast majority of companies check employees anyway, I fail to see how this is a death knell for online game forums.

khorak_EU · 02-04-2009 03:15 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Many of our members have stated that they are younger than 16 in the past. The tricky thing with this law (like others, including the new Extreme Porn regulations in England and Wales) is policing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Irrelevant, it is not marketed as a childrens game or community in the sense this law cares about. They are trying to stop dangerous perverts interacting with children in places where children will congregate. A forum for Barney would be more the style.

That people are admitting they are under 16 and GR not banning them immediately is a whole different issue, regarding the seriousness with which a games company will take its PEGI rating and how to enforce it.

Bottom line though, this is not a childrens forum. It never was, and I find it unlikely that the number of sub-16 members is as high as you think anyway.

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lionsbane_EU · 02-04-2009 03:18 PM

[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? They're saying that if youre going to work on sites with kids then you have to be checked to ensure youre not a sex offender.

To the op, I dont think this is pandering to anyone, i think its sensible, and any one who works with kids should understand why they have to go through these checks and be happy to comply with them.

I dont see why one single operator of forums should go down as a result of this, unless they cant be bothered to run these simple precautionary checks.

sex offenders should never have access to kids in any form, especially the internet.

That said, this particular forum isnt aimed at kids (even if some use it) so there shouldnt be an issue in any event.

Don't get into a flap. It's only my opinion and I'm thick

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Myopic Aardvark · 02-04-2009 03:19 PM

It did used to be. When COH was first launched it was 12+, which means that when the rating went up with the launch of COV, we had a lot of.... erm... indentured minors...

I agree with you about Ghostraptor and the banning and it is this factor that makes me think that companies will do away with the responsibility for forums, because all it takes is one child to post on a gaming forum and not be banned in a thread which catches the interest of the media and it's negative publicity all the way. The media won't care that the forum owner immediately banned said child, all they'll care about is "CHILD ON THE INTERNET, BURN GAMERS" angle.

Not rational in the slightest, but when has media ever been rational?

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GrinningSpade · 02-04-2009 03:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Organisations with interactive websites likely to be used mainly by children must ensure that staff moderating the sites are not barred from working with children from October.

[/ QUOTE ]

Highlighted the essential thing here. This is not a forum mainly used by children.

Extremus · 02-04-2009 03:23 PM

Also, more importantly, the game doesn't have a BBFC certification. There's no legal binding when it comes to what ages can or cannot play/post on the forums.

khorak_EU · 02-04-2009 03:23 PM

I think you're the one being irrational, you've blown this completely out of proportion.

It's irrelevant to us, the games industry, the games community, and anyone who hasn't committed serious criminal acts.

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Myopic Aardvark · 02-04-2009 03:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Organisations with interactive websites likely to be used mainly by children must ensure that staff moderating the sites are not barred from working with children from October.

[/ QUOTE ]

Highlighted the essential thing here. This is not a forum mainly used by children.

[/ QUOTE ]

I know what everyone's saying above, but I personally believe that a company will shy away from negative publicity. As I said above, all it takes is one child to post on a gaming website, one Daily Mail reporter to see that and suddenly it's be "CRB certified website pisses all over the law".

It doesn't matter that it's not true or even rational. Hell, it might force those companies who were possibly considering not running forums officially off completely.

The law is a good thing (assuming you believe that every internet forum has a paedophile on it, despite the vast majority of cases being a close family member), but if it's implemented badly then it could mean the end to online forums supported by companies.

Not just for gaming.

Then again, I could be wrong. I just wanted to discuss it here.

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Stasisesque · 02-04-2009 03:27 PM

Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Okay, seriously, Daily Mail reporters are not the ones who [censored] about gamers. It's the people who write in.

Myopic Aardvark · 02-04-2009 03:28 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Okay, seriously, Daily Mail reporters are not the ones who [censored] about gamers. It's the people who write in.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh shush, I'm just using a stereotype to make a point and you know it.

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FloatingFatMan · 02-04-2009 03:51 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]

Why? They're saying that if youre going to work on sites with kids then you have to be checked to ensure youre not a sex offender.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because it's an additional layer of red tape on top of the aggravation they ALREADY get. NC themselves already said they wouldn't be making any more official forums because of the extra workload it causes, and indeed, they didn't with Tabula Rasa. This is just going to add yet another layer of workload for them and will probably just push other companies over that "More trouble than it's worth" line.

Not that it's a bad legislation, it isn't. I just think it'll be a line of effort the games companies won't bother to cross; some at least.

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khorak_EU · 02-04-2009 04:12 PM

Does anyone here know how difficult it is for an employer to run a security check? Anyone? I do. I've had one run on me. I ran around for three damn days trying to find out where all my school records went to fill out the ten years I supposedly had to have been a living saint for so the company wouldn't feel paranoid about me selling the secrets to their, I can assure you, exceptionally poor processes for making car catalysts.

She'd finished running it five minutes after I walked out the interview and didn't bother telling me not to worry, the hag.

This is absolutely nothing. Nothing. It's a damn sex offenders list, they type in the name and get back 'no' or 'yes, here's the stuff he was convicted of'. I have absolutely no idea how you're all thinking this is some sort of community forum killing piece of legislative doom. We're not going to have official forums anymore because we're all such a bunch of complete ****holes using NCSoft money to moan non-stop about NCSoft while an NCSoft paid moderator has to stare at it all in disbelief, not because companies don't want to bother checking their new employee isn't a child molester hoping he can start a spandex only picture competition FOR CHILDREN!

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Ravenswing · 02-04-2009 04:26 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone here know how difficult it is for an employer to run a security check? Anyone?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep. My ex-partner was a teacher. It's trivial.

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Hero2 · 02-04-2009 04:31 PM

[ QUOTE ]
CoX shouldn't be affected by this, but I -can- see this being an end to official game forums in the future...

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect that the forum will simply have a "enter your age" box when you first register or look at the forums. Other than that it's all business as usual.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Many of our members have stated that they are younger than 16 in the past. The tricky thing with this law (like others, including the new Extreme Porn regulations in England and Wales) is policing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Irrelevant, it is not marketed as a childrens game or community in the sense this law cares about.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite.

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TsumijuZero · 02-04-2009 04:42 PM

I'm sure the governent can find better things to do than police internet forums to make sure that the moderators are registered...

if this is what they are spanking my tax money on, I want it back!

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Eight_Ball_EU · 02-04-2009 05:04 PM

How the heck is this worrying in anyway?

It actually takes some worry off my shoulders because now I know my kids and every other kid that uses the net is just that little bit safer from sicko's.

You are all blowing this completely out of proportion!

Did you all get followed home today?

Techbot Alpha · 02-04-2009 05:08 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure the governent can find better things to do than police internet forums to make sure that the moderators are registered...

if this is what they are spanking my tax money on, I want it back!

[/ QUOTE ]

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TsumijuZero · 02-04-2009 05:18 PM

True enough! Methinks all it will accomplish is driving forums that don't want to sign up to the fun police mandate, to move their hosting out of country, causing a loss of earning to those in the webhosting sector with servers IN the UK.

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khorak_EU · 02-04-2009 05:25 PM

[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure the governent can find better things to do than police internet forums to make sure that the moderators are registered...

if this is what they are spanking my tax money on, I want it back!

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahahaha! WHAT!? You don't want the government spending tax money on making sure paedophiles don't work with children?

You and Techbot have just taken the mighty leap from "didn't bother thinking this through" to "outright disgusting". I can't wait until I can have a son of my own one day, as an aside I'm hoping he'll be like a kind of Mini Me, and I'd quite happily flat out take away the voting rights of people like you, because you obviously shouldn't be allowed the responsibility.

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