Do you allow younger members to join?

Do you have an age restriction for joining your forum? Or do you allow anyone to join? And why?

Personally I think anyone should be allowed to join providing they are mature enough. I wouldn't like a 14 year old who acts childish joining, but if they were mature then that would be fine.

What are your thoughts?

 

We are a general chat community, so naturally we allow anyone to join. Why? Simply because that's the type of forum we are. I don't like the idea of age-restricted forums. Age restricted sections I can understand, but not the whole forum being only for certain members. As long as you know decent English, and if you're willing to carry on a conversation, we'd be happy to have you.

 

You have a good point, although what about all the younger people who think they can act "better" than everyone and are immature? Do they get banned?

 

they would probably be banned, CT does not need people like that within the community...

 

I agree. I don't think the younger members realise that the administrators are sometime alot older than themselves and think its OK to act immaturely. However, you do get some younger members who are very mature for their age.

 

I dont have a problem with age, as its just a number, its the maturity, and mentality of a person. I know some very mature 14 year old forumers. I have actually seen a 50 year old trolls so as I said age is just a number.

 

Wow, 50 year old trolls! You would think they would have more to do then troll on forums. Can I just ask what age you are, Kaiser?

 

Agreed. I don't think I could've said it any better if I tried.

Well, it's like Kaiser said, age is only a number. You can have 25 year olds who act like they're 4, but yet you could have 9 year olds who act so much wiser and more mature for their years. So really, in some cases it can be quite hard to put an age limit on anything, as anyone can just walk up to you and make up a number for how old they are.

 

I turned 17 this month on the 2nd. lol you can just click my name and read the membercard.

Yea its not age, its maturity and thats different in each person.

 

As Kaiser said age is a number I have a lad on my forum who is not quite 14 and is a great member he posts well and some of his topics are good
I did once have a older member who you would have thought was 5 the way he behaved ended up banning him

 

Tell me about it, I have a certain member here on AdminBB who is 51 and likes to create problems often.

 

I had a staff member a year or so ago on an older forum, and he was a teenager, but he acted so mature for age... I was shocked. Usually kids act so immature on forums, but you'd swear he was in his thirties! So really, there really are kids who act older and more mature than their years online. It can be shocking to find out when you run into someone like that.

 

Yea I have met quite a few people like that who were very mature for their age.

 

So most people here agree that age restrictions should not be enabled, and immature members should be dealt with appropriately no matter how young or old.

 

On my community, we only allow users 13 and up to join. It breaks the Coppa law if you allow under 13 to register and be apart of your community, you want to follow the rules, right?

 

Yeah but not everyone follows the rules. And some people may only want members over a certain age to join (ie 18+).

 

It really doesn't matter because when I was 13... (Been foruming since 9) I would just easily lie about my age. So even if I had that im sure if a 13 year old wanted to join he/she would just lie about their age.

 

Well, then you'd have to wait till they mess around and give up their real age. It happens more often than not though.

 

I honestly don't care what someone's age is as it doesn't reflect how mature or immature you act. You would be surprised at how some adults act like kids and vice versa.