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Tiergan · **03-05-2015, 06:27 PM**

As someone who sits very firmly in the "Older characters should please stop openly hitting on characters who are clearly minors" camp -- I actually agree with the sentiment that we shouldn't be limiting people's RP, but only to a certain extent.

If all the RPers are doing is having their teenaged characters flirt heavily, get wasted, and talk about their proclivities -- they're not doing anything wrong. This is pretty much exactly what some teenagers actually do in real life.

If you're RPing with someone and having your character flirt them up only to learn that the other character is a minor? Just have your character NOPE on out of there. You can even play it for laughs, because this kind of thing happens in real life all the time.

[EDIT: Good lord, this forum really insists upon making all youtube links or even just URLs into youtube videos. Skip to 1 minute and 22 seconds on this video. http://youtu.be/fH9yNIwG-48?t=1m22s ]

Making light of the moment as your character backs off can make things feel less icky while also making it clear where your RP boundaries are to folks.

For me (as in just my personal opinion) all of this only enters rapid squick territory in two situations:

1) An actual real life minor is ERP'd with by someone who is not a minor or tries to draw someone they know is not a minor into ERP with them. This is actually illegal. People have been investigated/labeled child molesters/gotten in all sorts of trouble for unknowingly engaging in romance-RP with minors. Some members of this community itself even have stories of people they know getting in trouble for it when parents have stumbled upon the romance RP logs of their children. It's no bueno.

Don't ERP with someone you're not 100% sure is not a child. (It also saves you the feeling of needing to jump into a hot shower and scrubbing your flesh raw if you later find out you've been doing all this crazy smut RP with a kid.) Some minors don't actually know they can get people in trouble for doing this, so I can forgive them if they just had no idea of the impact -- but any minor that DOES know and tries to draw adults into sexual RP situations with them anyway has basically decided they think getting their rocks off is more important than the possibility that their RP buddy could get labeled a child molester for life if something goes wrong.

2) A character that is a minor propositions (not just idle flirting that probably isn't gonna get anywhere) or is propositioned by a way older character with actual intent to ERP. This is the point people often disagree with me on, and that's fine. Minors doing their thing with minors is totally okay with me. Some people just really like exploring that 'young awkward first love' scenario or exploring the transition of youth to adulthood.

On the other hand, fully adult characters doing things with characters who are minors (and might even be like a decade or more older) or continuing to flirt even after the player makes it clear their character is just a kid is very unnerving to me. YMMV, but in my mind you don't really know what kind of person is behind the wheel of the adult character and whether that kind of RP is enabling some very dangerous mindsets. Also a 26 year old character trying to repeatedly get down and dirty with a 15 year old character just makes me recoil super hard in my chair.

Erik Mynhier · **03-05-2015, 06:39 PM**

There are moral and legal issues with people rping as younger people or being young irl. There's a lot of fuzzy to it and I just try to avoid it.

Zyrusticae · **03-05-2015, 10:41 PM**

At this point, I have to remind people that being outed as a "child molester" for ERPing is basically an impossible scenario. If the parents find out, it's the kid who gets in trouble. No parent is going to go as far as trying to connect a character name to a real person (something that is, frankly, impossible) when all they need to do is keep the kid off of the game. And possibly ground them from any text-based instant messaging programs entirely for a month or three.

Not that I blame you for the paranoia. The law is absolutely insane when it comes to this sort of thing, so protect yourself as you wish. Just saying that it's mostly unfounded, and every time someone brings it up they cite a completely unrelated event usually involving actual CP.

(03-05-2015, 05:38 PM)Edvyn Wrote: not in the eyes of the law lmao

Yeah, that's a problem with the law. It's completely divorced from any actual societal good and is focused entirely on vindictive vengeance and exploitation of free labor (yay private prisons) rather than rehabilitation. Needless to say, I believe some serious reform is needed, though obviously I won't go into the hows of it here.

Kage · **03-05-2015, 10:46 PM**

I'd like to remind everyone that this isn't the thread to talk about how the RL laws are; good or not.

The game is rated what? PG-13? There's nothing that requires them to be over 18 and there's nothing in the RP that does so there's no way (plus lol who would actually follow it?) to guarantee it. If you don't like the thought of people who RP as "under age of majority, whatever it is in Eorzea" doing acts that you find squicky, just drop it and walk away.

Edvyn · **03-05-2015, 11:10 PM**

(03-05-2015, 10:41 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote:
(03-05-2015, 05:38 PM)Edvyn Wrote: not in the eyes of the law lmao
Yeah, that's a problem with the law. It's completely divorced from any actual societal good and is focused entirely on vindictive vengeance and exploitation of free labor (yay private prisons) rather than rehabilitation. Needless to say, I believe some serious reform is needed, though obviously I won't go into the hows of it here.

yeah i guess you'll just throw out vague blanket statements instead because the law is the same everywhere and all our governments and prison systems are evil

fuck the man, maaaaaaaaaaan

A N A R C H Y I N T H E U K

Verad · **03-05-2015, 11:15 PM**

What are the participants here even arguing about at this point?

Edvyn · **03-05-2015, 11:15 PM**

(03-05-2015, 11:15 PM)Verad Wrote: What are the participants here even arguing about at this point?

the law and how it is bad or something

Ette · **03-05-2015, 11:25 PM**

(03-05-2015, 11:15 PM)Edvyn Wrote:
(03-05-2015, 11:15 PM)Verad Wrote: What are the participants here even arguing about at this point?
the law and how it is bad or something

It's like uh. . . Something something open hostility towards laws put in place to protect minors or. . . ??? Lord, I'unno anymore.

Seriphyn · **03-05-2015, 11:27 PM**

I love pedestrian politics!

ChewableMorphine · **03-05-2015, 11:45 PM**

I like to eat glue.

Faye · **03-05-2015, 11:50 PM**

(03-05-2015, 10:41 PM)Zyrusticae Wrote: At this point, I have to remind people that being outed as a "child molester" for ERPing is basically an impossible scenario. If the parents find out, it's the kid who gets in trouble. No parent is going to go as far as trying to connect a character name to a real person (something that is, frankly, impossible) when all they need to do is keep the kid off of the game. And possibly ground them from any text-based instant messaging programs entirely for a month or three.

Nononono absolutely no, ERPing with a RL minor is very, very illegal in the US, and there are certainly parents who WILL get the authorities involved and pursue legal actions. It is very far from impossible, to the point that I can promise you it has happened before and could easily happen again.

Coatleque · **03-05-2015, 11:54 PM**

(03-05-2015, 11:45 PM)Flynt The Hyena Wrote: I like to eat glue.

But we already knew...

ChewableMorphine · **03-06-2015, 12:00 AM**

(03-05-2015, 11:54 PM)Coatleque the Glue Consumer Wrote:
(03-05-2015, 11:45 PM)Flynt The Hyena Wrote: I like to eat glue.

I like to eat glue too

Zyrusticae · **03-06-2015, 12:13 AM**

(03-05-2015, 11:50 PM)Faye Wrote: Nononono absolutely no, ERPing with a RL minor is very, very illegal in the US, and there are certainly parents who WILL get the authorities involved and pursue legal actions. It is very far from impossible, to the point that I can promise you it has happened before and could easily happen again.

The problem with claims like this is that no one ever actually cites such an event. Until one is produced I will continue to assume it to be standard paranoid hyperbole borne from other, similar-but-not-related events.

(03-05-2015, 11:25 PM)Ette Wrote: It's like uh. . . Something something open hostility towards laws put in place to protect minors or. . . ??? Lord, I'unno anymore.

That laws are overbroad, overbearing, and overly harsh and often don't actually serve to protect minors in any sensible fashion, especially because most of the measures are taken after it becomes extremely obvious that something has happened to the child.

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The justice system is currently set up entirely for the latter, and is very poorly equipped for the former.

Coatleque · **03-06-2015, 12:22 AM**

I would like to point out that I was not advocating for anyone to break the law. The whole point of my post was to examine why someone is actually bothered by this behavior, NOT to question if it should be illegal or otherwise.

The fact that a law exists does NOT breed animosity against a behavior. And it is not bred through biology as we've already examined - else nature would have pushed puberty to an older age by now to compensate. The revulsion is instead a learned behavior, and what I was trying to elude to is that the source of this learning should be examined for truth and validity.

To say "it is wrong because I feel it is wrong" is a blank statement. It is akin to a parent saying "You will do this because I said so". Accepting it as fact is no different than brainwashing.

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