Anyone else notice this about the teens on this site?

16 Comments

Personally I find it obnoxious when teenagers believe themselves to be "mature" or "experienced" enough to pass for adults.

Where do the get off thinking that???

There is just no way it is possible: it's not even physiologically possible!

But still, they keep trying to prove that they are. They offer pithy advice and lament over emotional problems that an adult wouldn't even bat an eyelash at.

I wish this website had a way of blocking/banning teenage users from this place. I find their constant presence here brings a high-school like vibe to the site, especially in the Member Chat(what a nightmare that place has become, chock-full of under-aged users trying to pass as adults).

I think the mods should reject more teenage stories, but not teens. 16
I'm an adult and they piss me off. Get lost, you babies! 14
Only the trolls bug me. 31
I think they add zest - adults are boring. 5
I'm a teenager myself and I believe I'm as mature as a 30-yr-old. 12
Other. 6
I think this website should be for teens and adults. 50
I'm a teen and I think that adults should be blocked from this site. 5
I don't mind them, as long as they are forthright about their age. 28
I'm an adult and I don't notice them. 3
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Comments ( 16 )
  • Who_Fan4Life
    12 years ago

    I have been here for over 5 years now. And this has ALWAYS been a problem for IIN and it's ability to verify that each user is over 18. Until IIN has come up with a way to force each user to be over 18, then we will always continue to have 'under-agers' post and comment on the site.

    To be honest and fair though, I don't mind the teens that are mature and honest when they post and create stories. My main gripe about the whole thing is, users under the age of 18 that post spam, who troll etc. Can we all agree that we hate trolls?

    If IIN had the ability to eliminate the trollers and the spammers completely, then I would be more satisfied with the site as a whole. But overall, I really still do like the site, and continue to post comments on here, despite some of the BS that occurs.

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  • underager
    12 years ago

    Stop trying to control the world, people - can't be done!

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  • wigsplitz
    12 years ago

    I agree, it's extremely obnoxious. It's like a man describing what pregnancy and childbirth feel like....sorry, kids, you just don't have the qualifications to chime in sometimes. It's laughable, and sometimes it's insulting.

    Sometimes, yes, it's valuable to get a wide array of opinions or viewpoints. But, sometimes you kids just need to shut up.

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    • bananaface
      12 years ago

      How can you even tell how old a person is on here though?

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      • wigsplitz
        12 years ago

        Like I said in my first post, it's like a man describing pregnancy....when someone is talking about something that they haven't actually been through, or don't have much experience with, it shows.

        You guys seem to forget that us older people were kids at one time. We all thought we knew more than our parents, we all thought we knew who we were and had everything all figured out. Older people would tell us things and give us advice, and we shrugged it off because we thought we knew better or could do better on our own. And what happened? We ALL realized that we didn't know it all, and things weren't as easy or as simple as we thought. We can see ourselves in you guys, we can feel the feelings you guys have right now because we had them too.....and then real life hits, and you gain experience and you too will be able to look back and see what we're talking about right now.

        Maturity doesn't equal experience. Reading about a subject doesn't mean you have any clue what it is actually like in real life. Opinions that you have formulated up to this point that are not based in actual experience or knowledge, you will find will change drastically upon gaining experience.

        Yes, some of the younger people are more intelligent and more mauture than others, but there's nothing that can make up for experience.

        As I said too, I do find value in seeing all sorts of opinions...however, there's times when it's just not appropriate to comment. Back to the pregnancy example, can't you see how a woman who has been through pregnancy would be completely insulted, and find laughable, a man trying to act like an authority on the subject? That's what you kids do sometimes when you try to act like you have anything to add to certain subjects. It's the attitude more than what you're actually saying.

        I have children, I was a child, who do you think you're fooling?

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        • CarsGirlsGunsMoneyMade
          12 years ago

          You cite 'experience' as the issue with the kids, but an 18 y/o fresh out of the nest isn't a problem? They can't be a problem by trying to stick their noses in someone's marriage issues? Or by posting crap about their masturbation habits in an attempt to troll?

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  • TheManagement
    STAFF
    12 years ago

    Any (practical) suggestions for preventing them from joining? Thanks

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    • noatomsk
      12 years ago

      You could make the safer mode version of IIN available to teenagers and both versions of the website available to adults.

      To improve quality you could have some sort of Top Contributor thing where the TC's are able to remove a user or a post if enough of them flag that user or post as inappropriate. Having a TC badge would also give users the motivation to write of a higher quality. How to decide if someone is worthy of becoming a TC I'm not sure.

      Just my ideas.

      :D

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      • Neo.T
        12 years ago

        That sound like a good idea , I support it.

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      • LookSomeonesWelding
        12 years ago

        this is good i like it :D

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      • TheManagement
        STAFF
        12 years ago

        Thanks. We're going to work on something like that TC idea soon.

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    • cymbeline
      12 years ago

      Charge to set up an account. Something nominal like a dollar but which requires a credit card or PayPal version of credit card payment. Small increase in revenue for you and also a way of determining who is old enough to own a credit card or not.

      Allow teens to read the adult site but also let them have their own version of it that they can sign up to for free and post anything they want. I don't see why teens should be denied the chance to use this website. For them, they get something for free that adults have to pay for (hopefully, this is seen as a win because winning seems very important to teens. And Charlie Sheen). For over eighteens, they get an area that suits them and that teens can progress into (for the one-off deal of spending a buck when they are old enough).

      Maybe you can also make it so that anyone on the over-18 site can read the teen site but not stick their beak in. If the teens aren't allowed to comment on the adult site, it's only fair if the opposite applies. No adults commenting on teen stories and making teens seem stupid.

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      • TheManagement
        STAFF
        12 years ago

        Thanks for the thoughts.

        - A teens only site sounds a bit like the blind leading the blind. At least the ones that sneak in here can get advice from their elders.

        - Charging sounds promising to me, but I fear it would destroy the energy of the site and drastically reduce the amount of posts and comments. In the long run it might work out (ala metafilter) but it would be quite risky.
        - Perhaps you can write up to 1 post and 10 comments for free but you would have to pay to do more than that? Something of that sort. That could def. cut down on poor behavior a lot.

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        • CarsGirlsGunsMoneyMade
          12 years ago

          How about we display the poster's age next to their title and username?

          Eg. IIN I like steak? (Age: 15)

          Account (Age: 15)

          Hey, I like steak too!

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  • ToxicCrayons
    11 years ago

    I usually dismiss ridiculous stories as trolling. Honestly, there isn't much difference between the posts underaged users submit and posts adult users submit. I think that teenagers using this site isn't even an issue. Think of it this way; would you rather have teens receiving advice from adults or other unexperienced teenagers?

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  • nobodyspecial
    12 years ago

    I have no problem with teens being on this site. Maybe a good thing, they could learn a thing or two about life

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