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.
- 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.
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