First TheLidlessEyes wrote: |
Regarding the legal stuff and liability - when people join, I'll probably have something like:
This site contains adult-oriented and explicit material. When you join you certify the following:
I am an adult as deemed by my community and have the legal right to possess and read adult material.
I understand the standards and laws of the community, site and computer to which I am transporting this material, and am solely responsible for my actions. If I use these services in violation of the above agreement understand I may be in violation of local and/or federal laws and am sole responsible for my actions.
I do not find explicit adult material to be offensive or objectionable.
By becoming a member of this site, I will have released and discharged the providers, owners and creators of this site from any and all liability which might arise.
That looks like a good disclaimer, Steve. But... does it not exclude some of our younger members?
. . . and finally TheLidlessEyes wrote: |
Ethel, you're right.
We could play the innocence game of not knowing Pippin4242 and co are under 18, but a trawl through the posts will make it obvious we were (I am) aware.
It should be amended to include something about written permission from their parents. It's not like we have pornography per se, just occassionaly adult discussions about adult themes.
No one under the age of 18 would be allowed in the Thinking Of England forum, nor for any adult-themed RP. That has to be a golden rule, I think. Again, I'll have to take legal counsel on it. Thus if I am sued, I can sue the lawyer for crap advice - and being in America, I can add three zeros onto the number for good measure.
I know I'm about 4 or 5 pages late with my thoughts on this, but I offer two of them right now anyways:
1. Deferring for the moment the question of legal protection, I have a bit of a concern regarding including some of this language prominently, particularly in a form that is in any way analogous to the form one might happen to see on certain types of adult websites that I, of course, have never actually seen myself. Unfortunately, I suspect very strongly that this type of language -- while warning away some people and at least putting others who decide to enter on notice of what they might find on the board -- may also serve as a tempting invitation for many who would not otherwise be interested in coming on this board to in fact come here & post certain types of adult content that I, of course, have never actually seen myself. Hopefully this would happen only ocassionally and could be handled fairly easily and expeditiously, but it's also possible that it could result in the need for signficant vigilence and editing and such by the folks then on duty.
As to the legal issue, I certainly don't claim to have any substantive knowledge as to how effective such disclaimers are for purposes of adult content on the internet, but in the securities laws disclaimers are highly disfavored and often have little or no legal effect. Certainly one thing that would be needed for such a disclaimer to have any hope of providing legal protection would be prominence so that the user would be highly likely to see it before entering the site, rather than something buried deep in the website or that is easily clicked through without being read (I, for one, make it a policy NOT to read terms of use and similar disclosures/disclaimers that can easily be clicked through and only ever really paid attention to them when I had to get our outside counsel to write something up for us on our own website). However, that's the kind of prominence that also would tempt the bottom-feeders I referred to in the preceding paragraph.
2. I must admit I'm a bit embarassed to say this, and it is absolutely not meant as a threat, but I think that a prominent disclaimer as described above might very well cause me to seek de-registration from this board. It really surprised me when this thought first popped into my head, and I can't help feeling silly about it, but at this stage in my career I just don't need the complication of possibly having to explain to certain people my registration on a site that has that kind of warning slapping you in the face. I just don't need it. However much I try to reason my way to a different conclusion, I nonetheless return to the conclusion that I just don't need it. Like I said, this really should not be read as a threat -- you have to do what is right to protect yourself from potential liabilities. In any event, as most of you who know me already know, I have always been really just a casual poster in any event (albeit with short bursts of excessive posting), and even if I get past this issue and continue to come to this board I most likely will never be a prolific poster. I offer the thoughts in this specific paragraph not as an argument against using the disclaimer but to be truthful to my friends.