Underage RPers/cybering

[veronica_rich]

There's a pretty englightening discussion on fandomsecrets about a macro secret involving underage people RPing/cybering with adults. Specifically, this thread (warning: slow loading, image heavy), which has its little share of wank, but is surprisingly conducive to good conversations about the rights of adults versus the needs of teenagers to explore their sexuality in a safe (i.e., NOT skin-to-skin) manner; whether an adult can be charged with a crime if it is learned the RP partner is underage; what can happen to underage people engaging in distribution of pornographic materials to other underage or even overage people online.

We didn't have the Internet back in the cave I grew up in - I'll be 37 later this year. In fact, I didn't even have Internet access until oh, about 11 years ago, and it was a 28.8 KB connection, LOL. I didn't have sex until I was 19 years old. But I read romance novels, sneaked looks into my dad's Hustler and Playboy collection, etc. stuff without a sex partner. My sister, so far as I know, was reading fanfic when she was about 14 or 15, but not getting into doing anything until she was a legal adult. (She'll have to speak for herself if she wishes, beyond that.)

My point is, what do you think of underage people cybering with overage people? Do you think it's OK so long as they don't give their real age and seem mature? Or do you think there should be some measure (such as ...?) requiring they give notice of their age first, to protect a possible conviction against an adult who isn't really a pedophile and doesn't want to have to register as a sex offender for the rest of their life?

Comments

Sex makes everyone stupid

[finding-neo.livejournal.com]

Anyone who is OVERAGE should be aware that it only takes 1 complaint, whether based in fact or not, from an UNDERAGE person to land that OVERAGE person in jail for anything sexual the UNDERAGE person claims the OVERAGE person committed - that can be sending them porn, that can be meeting them, that can be coercing them to do sexual things, etc etc etc.

Take this scenario for example - the underage person gets mad at the overage person, for whatever reason and decides they are going to enact revenge. All it takes is one phone call and filing a report with whatever details the underage person thinks is most incriminating. BAM, the overage person is in jail.

Young people have little sense of responsibility and don't care if they ruin someone else's life. This is happening to someone I know right now and I recently learned it happened to someone else I know. The young man who's in jail right now because of the above scenario had his computer confiscated and searched as evidence. He cannot afford an attorney, he has a public defender. Do you think he's going to be cleared of 4 counts of predatory rape, even though the date of the occurrence was 2 1/2 years ago and there's no physical rape evidence? If they find anything on his computer, he will become a sex offender.

Adults would be very wise to steer clear of all things sexual when dealing with others in cyberspace. You never know who you're chatting with. And as many kids who are getting in trouble with the law now for "sexting" naked pictures to one another they can get in a heap of trouble too, no matter what their age.

Re: Sex makes everyone stupid

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Anyone who is overage and not an actual pedophile DOES know it's illegal - but that's not so much the problem as being lied to by an underage online partner. Your example is well-taken (and as I told someone else, I hope it didn't sound like I approve of overage/underage cybering - not my point at all).

Personally, I've stayed clear of cybering, and sticking to RP only for writing (with someone I know is well of age). And am glad of it ...