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Mabus · 07-14-2008, 11:06 AM

(Standard disclaimer here: I am not a lawyer. Seek legal help in your area for proper answers.)

We have the standard "This Game is Intended for Mature Audiences. Game Experience May Change During Online Play." on the , and a simple that a lawyer-friend of mine looked over for free.

In a text-based world you can block words (we don't, currently). You can have rules (some will break them anyway). You could log everyone and have somone read through the logs (lyrics of "Bertha" by the Grateful Dead "Not a job for me" come to mind). Short of requiring credit cards or other ID forms there is little you can do to police age, or interactions between those of variant ages. Other then a set, consistent rule-set with penalties (from talking to, bans, IP bans, proxy bans, list goes on and on...) there is little you can do to stop behaviors that may be deemed inappropriate for minors.

So it often comes down to the game using the "CYOA" (cover your own "backside") strategy to make sure that you have warned the potential user that you do not provide or police all content, and that the game is for mature audiences.

07-14-2008, 11:06 AM	#11
Mabus Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 213	Re: The PG13 Dilemma (Standard disclaimer here: I am not a lawyer. Seek legal help in your area for proper answers.) We have the standard "This Game is Intended for Mature Audiences. Game Experience May Change During Online Play." on the , and a simple that a lawyer-friend of mine looked over for free. In a text-based world you can block words (we don't, currently). You can have rules (some will break them anyway). You could log everyone and have somone read through the logs (lyrics of "Bertha" by the Grateful Dead "Not a job for me" come to mind). Short of requiring credit cards or other ID forms there is little you can do to police age, or interactions between those of variant ages. Other then a set, consistent rule-set with penalties (from talking to, bans, IP bans, proxy bans, list goes on and on...) there is little you can do to stop behaviors that may be deemed inappropriate for minors. So it often comes down to the game using the "CYOA" (cover your own "backside") strategy to make sure that you have warned the potential user that you do not provide or police all content, and that the game is for mature audiences.