Faceparty bans everyone over 36 in case they're peadophiles

[biggytitbo]

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=60860&d=258&h=262&f=3

Social networking site Faceparty is axing the accounts of users aged over 36, because it claims older users pose a danger of sex offending. The site says that it has been forced into the move because of changes in government legislation.

It says that new government legislation means such sites must check if older users appear on the government's sex offenders list. However, the legislation is based on checking addresses, and as Faceparty has not insisted on validated email addreses it cannot participate in the scheme.

WHat a load of rubbish. There's no such legislation surely? Presumably they just want rid of the oldies because they don't fit the sites images so why don't they just say so or would that be illegal?

[kushtrim]

We ain't prudes and this is not a porn site, although we do believe in free speech, self expression and every opportunity to run around naked

Under the prove you age section

It's a bit of an over kill but looking at the website, Im not suprised.

[Ginyard]

Let's face it, it was geared for kids and people in their 20s so what's the problem?. The mid-30s plus will just have to start hanging out with other adults. Hardly the end of the virtual world.

[Uncle TechTip]

I don't see how having a validated email address would prove you were on the sex offender's list or not. So no, their excuse sounds like bunkum.

[j_u_d_a_s]

Is it still even going?

Myspace and Facebook have rendered it obsolete anyway. I'm guessing they need to free up some server space.

[biggytitbo]

It's more this supposed legislation that bothers me. If faceparty want to keep their site for the young 'uns then good luck to them, but to try and pretend its because older people might be peados is ridiculous. Is there some law that means people in their 30s signing up for social networking sites now need to be criminal checked?

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Is it still even going?

Myspace and Facebook have rendered it obsolete anyway.

Isn't it filling a different market niche? The "finding people to have sex with" market niche. To be honest I find it very hard to get particularly worked up about this news because if you're over 36 and hanging around on faceparty you probably shouldn't be. You probably shouldn't be hanging around on faceparty under any circumstances. I can see why this would be upsetting for the over 36s who get all their sex off faceparty but they can just lie about their age, surely. It works for people too young to be on myspace.

[Ginyard]

Soon you'll need an advanced CRB check every month just to leave your house if you have hair on your arse

[Suttonpubcrawl]

Soon you'll need an advanced CRB check every month just to leave your house if you have hair on your arse

And they'll only let people who FAIL leave their house. It's political correctness gone mad!

[El Unicornio, mang]

Why would anyone 30+ want to go on there anyway? It looks like a place for kids

Sample quote on some girls page:
"hiya u ok?ur really pretty and that!! x x"

Smooth.

[biggytitbo]

I really wouldn't be suprised if 'concerns' about online grooming lead to extremely authoritarian legislation meaning full name and addresses need to be provided and verified before you can sign up to any social networking site or messageboards/blogs. It'd be completely disastrous for the internet but then the politicians hate the internet and are going to try anything they can to take control of it and especially to de-anonymize it.

I posted this on another thread but their new plans to monitor online communications include tracking what online videos or games you are playing.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/05/22/230779/revealed-untried-technology-and-huge-costs-behind-government-online-surveillance.htm

The information gathered, for example, could include the time an individual sent an e-mail or instant message, and who received it. It could also record details of websites visited by members of the public, and even who had used which online computer game or video clip, when and for how long.

[Ginyard]

I posted this on another thread but their new plans to monitor online communications include tracking what online videos or games you are playing.

"He's playing 'Rape the Baby' on vista, let's do him!"

[j_u_d_a_s]

Isn't it filling a different market niche? The "finding people to have sex with" market niche. To be honest I find it very hard to get particularly worked up about this news because if you're over 36 and hanging around on faceparty you probably shouldn't be. You probably shouldn't be hanging around on faceparty under any circumstances. I can see why this would be upsetting for the over 36s who get all their sex off faceparty but they can just lie about their age, surely. It works for people too young to be on myspace.

In my experience, just about any site can be used to find a willing bed partner and you are such a pretty pretty little thing...

Faceparty just seems like such a relic these days, it was always full of illiterate morons and shiny spangly gifs. For a laugh randomly click on any of the profiles and see what they put under "Favourite books/Authors". This along with geocities and AOL need to be purged off the internet for good.

[Ginyard]

I was only dimly aware it existed.

The only social website I've ever liked is this one. For a place where you can jovially take the piss and type 'cunt' 'till you're blue in the nails, its stocked full of intelligent and funny people. Virtually every other non-specialist site Ive ever visited has contained real humourless thick-wits of the finest degree. I suspect Faceparty is one such place.

[Kapuscinski]

The site is also now invitation-only, although I'd rather not be a member of that club.

I think the Faceparty staff have the wrong end of the stick about social networking sites. They're not meant to be some kind of microcosm of English society. Instead, Faceparty wants to be called a "community".

If you write mainly negative comments about Faceparty, they claim the right to remove your account without telling you first.

Is anyone a Faceparty member? What do you like about it? Am I missing much?

[Dragon]

What I'd like to know is: How exactly did they decide on 36?

[Lfbarfe]

In my experience, just about any site can be used to find a willing bed partner

Even this one? What am I doing wrong? Apart from being so obviously married and not trying it on with anyone.

[j_u_d_a_s]

The site is also now invitation-only, although I'd rather not be a member of that club.

That's the biggest hint that it's circling the drain and probably invented that whole government banning vagina-head paedophiles story as a way of covering its desperate arse.
Faceparty pre-Myspace was probably the biggest social network but since then it just looks hopelessly outdated. I'm guessing they did a survey of the age ranges who used it most too and found that the 35+ didn't use it as much as they liked.

[the ruffian on the stair]

What I'd like to know is: How exactly did they decide on 36?

I think this 36 rule will give an unfair advantage to younger paedophiles. This is age discrimination.   

[thehungerartist]

We're all paedophiles, it's just that most of us haven't met the right child yet.

[Capt.Midnight]

Habbo Hotel would be a very empty place if this legislation applied to them. It's so full of paedophiles that they pretty much groom each other.

[j_u_d_a_s]

We're all paedophiles, it's just that most of us haven't met the right child yet.

Habbo Hotel would be a very empty place if this legislation applied to them. It's so full of paedophiles that they pretty much groom each other.

Some paedos on Habbo yesterday...

[Capt.Midnight]

How exactly does one 'groom' a child? Does it involve some kind of specially modified brush?

[thehungerartist]

How exactly does one 'groom' a child? Does it involve some kind of specially modified brush?

[biggytitbo]

Where's Jonathon King when you need some answers eh?

[El Unicornio, mang]

If I had a daughter and she brought home friends that looked hott in shorts riding on a pink bike I'd turn into such a Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. I'd have to keep "excusing myself".

Obviously I'd turn down any sex that was offered to my mid-40s self though like he does in the film.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

In my experience, just about any site can be used to find a willing bed partner and you are such a pretty pretty little thing...

Faceparty just seems like such a relic these days, it was always full of illiterate morons and shiny spangly gifs. For a laugh randomly click on any of the profiles and see what they put under "Favourite books/Authors". This along with geocities and AOL need to be purged off the internet for good.

I just tried that out for the simple thrill of confirming my own prejudices, and the chaviest guy i could find cites - moby dick, paradise lost and david copperfield on his profile. I HAVE DISCOVERED THE NEW STRAIN.

[imitationleather]

Faceparty is a bit of a weird site. It was the first social networking site I ever became aware of (probably back in 2000 or so) and so obviously I've had a few profiles, but it's only really a step away from Gumtree in terms of how overtly it's all about people getting their oats. As I recall all you'd have to do is send a PM saying "Hey, you look interesting!" to some plain-looking emo girls and in no time at all you'd have an inbox full of messages from interested parties. I'm far too shy and embarrassed to go in for that internet causual sex stuff though (well er, I sort-of tried it once, but it was all completely ridiculous and put me off doing it again), not that there's anything wrong with getting your shaggings off a website if it's what floats your boat.

The last time I was on it was years ago and I remember you'd get stuff like (very) young girls offering up naked pictures of themselves if you bought them top-up vouchers for their mobile phones. Wasn't there some scandal about girls as young as 13 putting pictures of their fannies on it? I'm surprised the site was allowed to continue after that came out.

[Milo]

How bizarre. Surely anyone who might actually pose a threat is registered as a 15 year-old boy already.

[rudi]

What I'd like to know is: How exactly did they decide on 36?

Hello!