The 18 Barrier

The first full blog fortnight of 2013 brings us:
- The potential end of HMV
- The potential end of Blockbuster
- The potential end of my sanity
- Drugs + Cycling = No.
- David Cameron gets his panties in a twist about various things
- Algerian hostage crisis
- In Britain, snow means certain death and apocalypse provisions
- January exams are taking place, watch this space for ~controversies~

Today, I'll talk about that irritating "18 or over" age barrier that dominates everything. This comes after reading the i and seeing that they were running a competition. It was a regular competition to write in an opinion article, but this time I noticed a little rule saying "no schoolchildren, please". In basic terms, this means that they only want entries from higher education, or those above 18.

Now, I can understand this to a degree. My blog is comparatively shit to what a promising journalism student in their second year of university would write, for example. They don't want to have to shift through thousands of entries from young kids who can barely string together a coherent argument (yeah, there is that whole "age =/= quality" argument but that's for another time).

My problem is with everything else (on the internet mostly) - you must be "18 or over" for everything.

And I mean everything. Some sites I can understand why they would have such an age barrier - PayPal, for example. Others I understand less so. I bought The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists (watch it), which came with a "UV Copy". The "UV Copy" was basically a digital copy of the film that I could keep on my computer so I wouldn't be tempted to do anything illegal. To do this, I needed to sign in. To sign in, I need to be over 18. Why? I didn't have to be over 18 to buy the film, I certainly didn't have to be over 18 to watch the film. So why do I need to be over 18 to access a copy of a film I have just bought. Presumably, their reasoning would be along the lines of "to stop me accessing inappropriate content", but surely if I'd bought an 18 film then it's the store I bought it from that would be at fault, not the company who gave me the download for it.

Another argument I suppose they could give would be "child protection". However, sites like Goodreads manage to allow under-18's perfectly fine - so why is it such a problem everywhere else? On gaiaonline.com, they ban swearing, which brings me to another point. Under 18's can't sign up to certain things because of the "language and content" but I can guarantee you that in their home life they would have heard much worse. Especially by the time they are 16.

Why is it that, until recently, a 16 year-old can leave school but not get a YouTube account in the UK? Why is it that a 16 year-old must pay tax on all their earnings but can't download a film they paid for online? Sites believe they're protecting children, when actually they're just forcing them to lie about their age over and over. If they really want to help, I would suggest following Goodreads' example and setting under-18 accounts to private. That is true safeguarding, not the "must be 18 or over" clause that it's so easy to hide behind. The internet is being used by all ages and people, not just the over-18's.

A Letter to a Train Ticket

The fortnight in a list:
- We didn't get a white Christmas
- We got a wet Christmas
- And a wet Christmas Eve
- And a wet Boxing Day
- And a wet New Year's Eve
- And a wet New Year's Day
- Do you sense a theme here.
- A horrific car crash kills two kids on the motorway
- 2013 happens.

I would do the year in news but A) I can't remember and B) Charlie Brooker does it so much better in Charlie Brooker's 2012 Wipe (Brits - look it up on iPlayer. Rest of the World - go find a streaming link or something)

Before I start my post properly, I'd just like to say that I discovered "Google Stats". Now, because I still use Internet Explorer (and also because Blogger is the most user-unfriendly site ever) I don't venture to the Blogger site often, and I email my posts through to noiwouldnotlikesometea. However about a week ago, I decided to log in just to check that everything was hunky-dory. This was when I found the "Google Stats" thingy. It tells me how many page views I get, when and where. I discovered with this that I get a lot (and I mean a lot) of views from Russia. How exactly did this happen? Most of my babbling is either barely making sense or vaguely political, and I can't help but wonder why exactly it is so appealing. Please, put me out of my misery. Even this week, I have 8 page views from Russia, and only one from the UK (and that was most likely me in the last few minutes). If you happen to live in Russia, tell me why you read my blog.

Onto the second little bit before I start my post properly, this is just a little bit of background. I came back from Wales the other day, on the train (first class!). On one of the three trains I would take that day, I happened to slouch in my chair and notice, underneath the table and in the chair opposite was a train ticket. I'm a bit weird and like to collect train tickets, so I picked it up. Then, being the wax-lyrical person I am, I started to think of the person who bought the ticket. It wasn't a ticket per se, just a receipt announcing somebody had bought tickets. This fortnight, I've decided to write a letter to this unknown person.

Dear Ticketholder,

I notice you do not pay much attention to your accounts, otherwise you would've taken this ticket receipt. Maybe it was just an accident, and you're now sat at home worrying. I highly doubt this, your ticket cost £2.

Where can you go for £2? I was sat in the first class section, so you must have been too. Where can you go, first class, for £2? You bought with a Visa card, and few under-16's wander around with a card as the only source of money, so I can only assume you're an adult. You must've only gone one or two stops. Was it a journey to work? I wouldn't suppose it would be, otherwise you would probably by a season ticket. Just a day out shopping, perhaps? Or did you go to visit a friend?

What's funny is the fact you bought this ticket on the 30th December at 19;41. I traveled up to Wales on the 30th, and I would have been travelling at the same time as you. This is what always astounds me about the world. How we can all go about our own lives without any direct contact with one another. There are many things that we have in common: We both took a train at that time, we both held a ticket for the train, we both travelled on First Great Western service. And yet we possibly have many things that are different, if only we knew each other.

I think of all the places you could be going, and then I realise all I wish is that you got there in the end.