carnival73: I really don't believe kids should have too much unsupervised freedom before age sixteen.
Some naive casual PC using adults are at jeopardy as well.
Forcing gamers into interaction with others is herding them into a barrel to get taken advantage of.
Either none of today's generation know how to program or else leaving A.I. out of the equation opens doors to more lucrative ventures.
Thunderstone: Since when did I suggest giving kids complete freedom, my post was advocating educating kids about dealing with people. Your OP seemed to be advocating locking kids away from the mean nasty strangers. Kids need to learn how to deal with people, and the only way to learn how to deal with people is to well deal with them. This is where proper parenting comes in, teach your kids about using good judgment.
I think it is just as unhealthy to teach kids to trust no one as it is to encourage pure trust. Yes, there are bad people out there but not everyone is a pedophile. To teach them that everyone is a potential pedo is to raise your kid with a sense of paranoia and dread.
What brought this thread on? Did something happen?
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Another dead online only game. *grrrr*
And there's also an issue of trusting your kid when your back is turned. God only knows what a kid can download to your PC in under thirty seconds.
IronStar: Well...I'm actively using internet and playing online games since I was 12. I don't recall getting raped. ;)
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You're in Serbia. =L