Will there be an official response about Party Finder advertising?

[Saefinn]

I dont think it's as visible as that? Typically Ive seen them sit in the misc or private sections of PF. Not always, but I think theres a difference (albeit subtle) between actively shouting it and passively putting up a sign people might see. It is also worth noting that we are discussing the lounges in the assumption of cybering, but that doesnt necessarily have to be the case despite being 18+. Simple adult themes would qualify, or the overt use and suggestion of restricted substances like alcohol or drugs. This is a bit of an ambiguity that would be hard to moderate as it were.

The reason I mention shouts is because the line of reasoning that I've been responding to has been to remove comments entirely from PF and let this all move into shout, which I am suggesting is a worse idea than letting it stay in PF. And agreed with the adult themes, they can anything, people are mainly talking about ERP and Cybering (which are not always the same thing). The wording I used in my example was suggestive enough to communicate it's adult as in lewd but its wording doesn't violate ToS, nor does necessarily the stuff they're doing, so my argument here is that for the argument that we should move it to shout where people will more likely report it and also turn off shout chat if spam is too much doesn't really work if the adverts themselves don't break the ToS and if their activities don't break the ToS because the GM's would let it continue so for the argument being "this is how we'll keep this away from minors" is moot, because it won't.

Yes, but it can also swing the other way. If there was the attempt or success of a minor to pass themselves off as an adult in a manner that itd be hard for the adult in the situation to make the proper determination, it tends to fall on the side of less severe punishments. Im by no means advocating that adults get away with abusing minors, to be clear, but lets not suggest that there arent minors who abuse systems to pass as adults when they shouldnt.

That would depend on what the law decides and that can vary country to country. Some law views the adult as the sole responsibility and that they hold the responsibility of verifying the age of the participant. Somebody gave an anecdote of a bouncer who lost their job despite the fact the person found a way to cheat the system and get into a bar underaged. Some places can be harsh. So this is the risk you take, it's also the risk you take working in hospitality, retail and so on, because you can get into trouble serving underaged people there too. It's why here in the UK the policy is if somebody looks under 25, you ID them, even though the legal age for most things is 18.

This all being said, what you are suggesting sits more with the individuals than the business entity. In this case, youd have two people interacting. SE only would provide the 'platform' for the interaction, but not the moderation of the interactions. They have reasonable liability if they come across and actual predator/grooming situation and ignore it. But if theyre unaware of a specific situation, it is left more in the hands of the individual participants. I happen that this is actually the reason why you dont see moderation. The more 'hands off' they are, the less liable they become. The more hands on they are, it raises the questions of "Why did you moderate x but not y".

Yoshi P in an interview I think was clear in that if you do anything illegal then they will take action against your account. With reports they will investigate them. With in game brothels YoshiP explicitly said to report them when people see them. He didn't indicate they'd ban them out right, but put in two emphases, one in that they will investigate it and two that they have legal support to help them in most countries. So I think where they are from a legal standpoint is likely to be safe and that they are doing the appropriate things as far as their platform goes. When it comes to individual responsibility, you break the law then of course you're responsible. Unfortunately, you can have all the best intentions and be certain you're doing the right thing and then find you've broken the law.

I dont think it really protects minors from it by being less visible. To be frank, I dont think minors (unless theyre explicitly children aged - so 12 or less) are as stupid as we like to think. If they want to find it, theyll find it. Much like most well enough know what is implied with 18+. By pushing it underground, minors looking for it will find it, and it will be less visible to be moderated. Im always more of hte mindset that keeping things relatively public works best for moderation purposes cause it keeps more eyes on it to catch dubious activities.

I agree it doesn't protect minors by being less visible. If anything I think having it visible enough for GM's to be able to moderate and 'okay' enough for people within those communities to report it without repercussions when they themselves have committed no wrong doing is probably better at protecting minors. Because let's face it, who's most likely going to spot a sexual predator in an MMO? People who engage in sexual activities. From a previous commenter of somebody in one of those communities, they pushed out somebody who was doing inappropriate things with a minor and rejected them outright and made them well known. And the GM's knew about it and the police got involved.

And I agree teenagers, aren't stupid. If anything they are intelligent, naive perhaps and in many cases still oblivious to consequences or apathetic of them. I mean, many people try to see naughty websites before they're old enough and many people still try to buy alcohol underage, many succeed...myself included.

As I mentioned above, I think the current moderation is done by intention, and likely cause of that legal support. It is better to be hands off and claim ignorance than to be hands on and be well aware of all the things that occur. If a problem comes out into the open in a very overt way, like shouting in public to go to the 18+ 'RP lounges'. I feel the thinking is "As long as it remains in PF under some of hte sub tabs in a passive way, then it's whatever." Theyll take action when it moves to a much more public and active role, itll be addressed.

I don't think it's entirely hands off. More if they catch somebody guilty of wrong doing they'll act. At least going by YoshiP's comments about then investigating these cases and encouraging people to report them.