Apparently people can't do math and give in to stupid ideas like Roblox has a child exploitation problem based on raw numbers.
Even people advocating against this stupidity. GamersNexus stated that Roblox has a problem and stated there are 13,000 sexual incidents on the platform a year. Without context this sounds like a problem, but it's not. There are 1.4 billion users on the platform! That is 0.000000867% risk factor. Your kid is far more likely to be hit by a car: 0.0001% and it is about as likely that they'll be struck by lightning. If you can't do math that amounts to a near ZERO percent chance your kid will encounter a predator.
Based on this logic every kid should be locked in a padded room and only released once they turn "adult" (?28? maybe... brain isn't "fully developed" until then). Yes, this is stupid, but these advocates of this kind of shit are the real threat and the real extremists. They think even one incident is far too many as if there is some magical way to stop all threats if only we pass another dumb law (that often only endangers children, or worse everyone). They advocate based on fear and rely on stupid people (those in 'society') not being able to think for themselves.
It's long past time we started advocating to re-introduce 'danger' into the lives of 'children'.
In the 80s getting cut up- falling off a bike- or dealing with a bully was said to 'build character'. I certainly wouldn't go quite that far, but there is some element of the mentality that you need to let kids live and learn and experience the world for themself that makes sense. It's how we learn and grow as humans. Not doing it leads to bad decisions, bigger more prolific problems; loss of life savings to Nigerian princes.
Is there something about being a libertarian that requires you to cut out part of your brain with a knife?
>implying 1.4 billion users are real people
>implying the C-suite execs at roblox haven't spent years protecting pedophiles
>implying there aren't thousands of spam/real accounts designed to target children and sexually abuse them, which easily find new accounts within minutes
>implying the roblox company hasn't made legal threats against Schlep, who was abused as a kid on the platform and wants to help law enforcement target pedophiles
Truly, what is your point?
@Hephaestic @mr_penguin I just don't like how politicians are using this game as an example on why we need to lockdown the Internet to protect the children.
Throughout the history of online games directed towards kids (Habbo, Club Penguin, Millsberry, Neopets, etc), all of the sudden, this is a problem and we need to introduce age verification. I've played some of those games growing up, and even knew kids who played those as well, and stories about pedos on them only happened once in a blue moon. Normally, it was some kid who didn't learn the lesson of not giving personal info to strangers online or just not talk to strangers online, period.
@beardalaxy @xianc78 @Hephaestic
For sure. I'm not pro-50's - 80's style parenting, but modern 'parenting' is probably worse.
"Safety" is overrated, but that doesn't mean you need to take your kid to the woodshed either.
There is something in-between regular beatings and corporal punishment and keeping your kid inside for fear of someone kidnapping your kid. The kidnapping by a stranger is statistically rare and most of us who survived the 50-80's are better off as adults than those whom were been over the last two or so decades.
I think there's an interesting history of failed children's online safety bills from the 2000s and 90s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Online_Protection_Act
Yea- the federal government passed bills repeatedly in the 90s and each was struck down by the US Supreme Court. Some of the bills that were passed were literal copies of bills already struck down. In those/that particular case it was clearly sent as a message rather than as something that would be upheld given it was the same bill.
Sure, but roblox does have a pedophile problem (as does VR chat, Discord, and the CIA). The digital ID lobbyists are only latching onto it because truth is good propaganda.
The data suggests otherwise. If there is something I've missed ... well ... point it out. However the number of "incidents" is so close to zero given the size it's an absurd conceptually to say there is an issue. Undoubtedly bad shit happens, but it's almost certainly more of a problem elsewhere based on the stats than on Roblox.
As far as Discord or the CIA is concerned I'll be skeptical there too only because this is a topic of exploitation by pretty much all political sides. People are using it to their own ends and hyping non-issues. However present some data ... and I'll keep my mind open about there being some kind of a problem.
There are so many issues with data collection and unsound scientifically flawed studies more generally. Then add politically sensitive or difficult to study topics (things like rapes/pedophilia/murder) in and you basically can't draw any conclusions at all of any value. If you only study doctors based on those who have been locked up for murder you end up concluding all doctors are murders and that's basically what happens with rapes/murders/sex offenders. No sex offender is going to say they're an unidentified sex offender so a study. How would a study even identify a group of unidentified sex offenders? Thus these sorts of studies end up only being based on those locked up leading to flawed data and conclusions.
>As far as Discord or the CIA is concerned I'll be skeptical there too only because this is a topic of exploitation by pretty much all political sides. People are using it to their own ends and hyping non-issues. However present some data ...
Oh, you're just disconnected from reality. Okay. I won't bother interacting with you anymore.
Yea, your ignoring reality. Got to wonder what your personal motivation is for IGNORING the numbers and advocating for censorship/ID laws.
Even this is kinda ridicules when 99.95% of people are NOT a danger. I'd certainly agree it's not a good idea to give out your address, but even this is kinda ridicules.
Before cell phones there was this thing called a phone book and everyone's name and address were published in it. It's how us kids of the prior generations found each others contact information to reach out to one another or write a letter.
Danger has been hyped to no end and used to control us.
We need to get rid of drivers licenses, vehicle registration, mandatory seat belt laws, helmet laws, curfews, car insurance, etc.
It's not anywhere near as crazy as it sounds either. New Hampshire doesn't have a mandatory seat belt law or helmet law (for adults on the seat belt at least, and for motorcyclists on the helmet at least). New Hampshire doesn't mandate car insurance either. You'll never be asked for insurance if you get pulled over in New Hampshire.
The point that I'm trying to make is that while safety is important it's not something we need to mandate at an individualized level and it's not mandated in many places. New Hampshire just got rid of vehicular inspections and the same argument to keep them was "but safety"... well... um most states don't have them... and the data suggests there is no safety benefit (or something like that) anyway.
Yup- fear. That's how you control people and tyrants know this. It's near all of those those who seek and end up in power. It doesn't matter if it's a law enforcement position, politician, or a school principle. Or hell parents.
@xianc78 @Hephaestic @mr_penguin the internet is different than it used to be... Sadly. So is our society just in general. It's all far worse and more widespread than it was in 2005.