h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd be bloody careful trying anything like that if I were you, Mistdancer.

Then again, Barton's not a boojum, so you can call him what you like.

H.

Sorry - I got here as soon as I could... Stand back. These things are loaded>



(and - just in case



Shucks, don't thank me - just doin' muh job...

Ok, now I'm confused (happens far too easily these days!)

What's a boojum???


carefully controlling her humerous side

A boojum..... http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F52650?thread=151070&latest=1

Aahh...boojum

Ok, it's late, I'm tired and depressed, so I'm going to bed before I say something stoopid and make a berk of myself.

Tefkat,

No, I am not a group or a gestalt (except insofar as each of are the collection and results of our individual experiences) I do believe in maximal freedom so long as it ic coupled with appropriate responsibility.

I believe you will find that place where I myself qestioned whether I was falling victim to LCD thinking. On this issue and any other issue that involves children being exposed to situations that require adult responsibility or that might tend to place a child in situations where they might be victimized, I am overwhelmining in favor of protecting the child.

I am not however attempting to enforce some generic form of ethics. I am stating my personal position and asking if the BBC's position doesn't support me in this.

I agree with you that a parents job is to be a parent. If all parents were parents all the time there would be no issue here. There would be no time at which a child was not protected by adult judgment while, at the same time, the child would be free to discover the entire universe in complete safety.

You say that were you reading through the Manor and your child were to ask you what was going on that you would be frank with hir. As would I in my case. I assume that you would not encourage or permit your teen-aged children to log on under adult seeming names and to participate in these fantasies. But that may be presumptuous of me.

There are laws designed to prevent children from being exposed to such adult things. These may be designed to protect the children from spiritual harm (which tends to be too coupled to religion for me to be comfortable with) or they may be designed to protect children from physical or psychological damage (which I have far less trouble supporting).

It should be obvious that I think that there is *something* wrong with children being involved in these sexual/erotic games or I would never have thought to complain probably even if I knew there was a law against such things. I have participated in civil disobedience and there are times when I feel it is appropriate. This is not one of them.

Here in the States we are guaranteed the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I'm sure there are equivalents in the UK. But some people seem to think that the pursuit of happiness is a guarantee of happiness and that any restriction on personal happiness is an infringement on their personal rights. I will defend their right to pursue happiness but we aren't necessisarily entitled to achieve happiness.

Case in point, I just now had to get up and tell my granddaughter that she had done some thing wrong. She's three. She's crying.

If a parent has a job that involves parenting, a child has a job of becoming an adult. Particularly as a child approaches adulthood that child will want to try out the things adults do. Some of those things can be made safe and permitted with proper supervision. Some cannot. Many folks differ as to what those things are.

Another pause while I go and console my granddaughter and tell her I lover her. Give her a hug and a kiss on her forehead. While I'm writing about doing that, I'm thinking about how someone malicious might choose to equate a hug with a carress. I'm thinking about how there is very little difference made today between love and lust.

Now, I am not taking the position that sex or sensuality is bad and I have said before that I do not believe that these games are bad. The only thing I think is bad is children becoming involved in these games withoug us being aware of it. Given today's level of freedom, we can't prevent that. So we must choose to try to protect the children or we must take a position less concerned than that.

I'm still waiting for some official to tell me what the BBC's position is on this.

Barton

Mistdancer,

Thanks for the promotion, pretty much everone else was telling me it was a hobby horse.

And to be honest, my mental image is more of shouting up from the bottom of a pit where people are poised to roll rocks down at me.

HVL,

Anyone can call a boojum, the problem is only when it comes.

Here, boojum, boojum, boojum!

Isn't this about the tenth fit?

Barton

PS you might want to check out the definition of 'to snark'

MoG wrote: "Of course, the more people chose to press issues to meet their own personal agendas, the more likely h2g2 staff are to react by limiting everyone's freedom of expression on this site."

It's not really fair to blame increased censorship on the people who ask about it and try to understand what their limits are.

I have two questions:

1) Is there any law against engaging in 'virtual sex' with a minor? In the UK? In the US?

2) Is there any 'virtual sex' going on in Mina's Dungeon?

I have third/fourth question:

does the minor realize what (s)he doing?
does the minor stay at home?

pheloxi*,

I will ultimately have to leave the answer to your sex questions to those who play there, but to the best of my knowledge there has been no virtual 'sex' in the Manor.

As far as minors participating in the Manor and questions that follow from that, it has been rather firmly stated here that none of the respondents are aware of any minors participating. I get the impression as well that no adult is playing at being a child either. That should probably be directly stated for the record but innocent till proven guilty by my lights.

Barton

Peet and Willem,

When I was a sysop for a national (US) telecom system with realtime chat rooms, I was informed by company management that virtual sex or anything that might be considered contributing to the delinquency of a minor was illegal.

Since that time, many of the sex laws, which vary from state to state in the US, have changed drastically, but, to the best of my knowledge, virtual sex with a minor is still against the law and would fall into the same class as child pornography.

I imagine that there is still an issue about jurisdiction but I seem to remember recent Federal regulations that apply and that the FBI was involved on some level (contrary or supporting info is most welcome.)

Barton

Peet and Willem AND pheloxi*,

Please forgive my jumbling the questions between your replies. The consecutive numbering confused me. I guess I'm tired.

Barton

Subcom: You quoted MoG: "Of course, the more people chose to press issues to meet their own personal agendas, the more likely h2g2 staff are to react by limiting everyone's freedom of expression on this site."

You then said: "It's not really fair to blame increased censorship on the people who ask about it and try to understand what their limits are."

I read MoG's comment more as an observation of cause and effect (which is already observable) than as an attempt to lay blame.

Ben

Barton, hi.

Hi, everyone.

Barton wrote: "I'm still waiting for some official to tell me what the BBC's position is on this."

Have you sent an email to them (if so, to whom?), or are you waiting for them to read through *this* backlog and reply?

Also, could someone please tell me what post 216 was and why it was moderated?

It was moderated because I yikesed it. The author of that posting is lucky I didn't yikes all his posts that persistently accuse me of sexual/erotic games on h2g2. I have finally taken offence at seeing it in nearly all of his more recent threads. Especially as he is now accusing Calamity of it as well, and she has made a total of about two posts in the dungeon.
I leave the decision to the italics.

Barton.
I'm at work now, which doersn't give me the time (or the right) to spend a great deal of time replying to you about your last posting to me now.
But I WILL, oh boy, will I...

Mina, thanks for the info...



GTB

Sorry, MoG. I might have misunderstood what you were saying. I'm not trying to defend any personal agendas, just trying to make sure the censors get adequate blame for increasing or decreasing censorship.