kids and chat rooms

[judojedi]

i'm thinking of recommending that my students join MAP. however they're all quite young and their parents may not want them to join as there is mild hysteria regarding chatrooms.

i was wondering if parents could set up accounts for thier kids with certain limitations for their own peice of mind. limitations such as: cant post photo's, or enter chat rooms or send/recieve pm's. but can post on the forum and can play in the arcade.

am i right in assuming that there are no private chat rooms? if there are pcr's then they would deffo need to off limits to youngsters.

[Saz]

Children aged 13 and under need their parents permission to join MAP anyway. I'm pretty sure accounts could be tailored to stop a member posting photo's, using the chat room, and sending/receiving PM's. One of the Admin can explain the in's and outs better than I can, but yes, it is possible.

There's no private room's on the MAP chat room, just 3 public rooms and user's can Private message each other in the main room. One good thing about the chat here is you need to register to use it, and other younger member's have used it without a hiccup, plus its moderated better than nearly any chat room I've seen.

[Darren]

There is software that can allow the parent to ban certain pages, eg the chat URL. Besides maybe the parent should sit with the child and learn something of the child's interest. Call it bonding.

[YODA]

I would love to set up a kids area on MAP and have limited access to some of the main area for them too. We have lots of plans and upgardes coming VERY soon so it will be something we could consider when all that is in place.

Feel free to keep discussing it in the meantime - let's get some brainstorming going!

[judojedi]

brainstorming:

kids under 13 (or whatever age) to not be allowed to:
post their real name or address, mobile number etc
post their school name/location
post photographs unless they have parents permission
private message
have their usage times and duration reported to their parents email account (optional for parents who are concerned about the kids spending to much time online)

also, if MAP gained some sort of recognition from a big isp or something to say we're childsafe. for example the 'AOL family site certificate' if there is such a thing.

[hongkongfuey]

JJ - good ideas, keep them coming. We already have a 'no chat' group, but that's used for another purpose!

It would be fairly easy to setup a restricted rights group as you suggest with no PM's (I like this idea), chat or photo gallery access.

[Kwajman]

Any kid that breaks the rules can be warned, then temporarily suspended or fed to the cage of trolls that kgirl keeps. I don't know if warning the kids would do anything tho.

[judojedi]

can't think of much else...dont want to restrict the kids to much or they'll just not visit.
i think all restrictions should be optional for the parent so they can decide what level thier kid operates on.

the security settings for kids on AOL would prevent them from getting to this site wouldn't they? so we would need to get the site approved as a family site by them and others (if we're not already).

oh and keeping a journal should be an optional item aswell.

EDIT: just had another idea,

what about having a mod whos a trained, qualified profiler to monitor correspondace between u13's and other members! its a bit 'big brother'ish but 'undesirables' can be identified by the language they use towards children. a MAP CRACKER if you will.
funny the ideas you get while having a movement, plus i'm a stone lighter:D

[Ghost Frog]

Originally posted by judojedi

funny the ideas you get while having a movement, plus i'm a stone lighter:D [/B]

You've got a pc in your loo? :eek:

[judojedi]

:p
computers are everywhere nowadays. :D

[booksie_girl]

Originally posted by Kgirl
Children aged 13 and under need their parents permission to join MAP anyway.
But there's no way to really check is there?