NSFW PSA please watch your children

[Gstreater]

Community and community moderation in some small communities such as for streamers or games are not being handled correctly. This is my experience in one discord that I'm not sure if I should name. I had gotten close to a user called K. My free time is late night, so if his so we had gotten pretty close. I had listened to his problems and they were usually about interpersonal relationships. The first time he made me uncomfortable with his preferences was when he told me, that his gf broke up with him when he told her that he liked loli porn. I was really put off but I told K that he really shouldn't talk to others about that. No children were being harmed in that stuff so I let it go I didn't tell anyone. The next time he told me about something he said he regrets it was that he essentially groomed and got nudes from a bunch of schoolgirls. Think around 14 that age range. He said he regrets it but I immediately went to the streamer who runs the discord and told them all of this. To this day K is still in that server that is focused on Splatoon a children's game.

-The grooming incident-
This other person is a female that I'll reference as T. T is about 22 the male just turned 17. Essentially they got close in this discord and she invited the 17 year old to her place since she lives with her family still. The first visit goes fine. The second however is when she begins touching him inappropriately and whispering in his ear. He likes her romantically whether she knows it or not she shouldn't do this to someone under the age of 18. After teasing and very inappropriate things he's not sure how to feel and tries to continue being friends. However he finally comes out and visits her a third time and calls her a pedophile. She says what she was doing to him was experimenting so she could do it to her boyfriend, who she has been dating this whole time. When this all comes out to the discord the twitch streamer, the same one from the K story. Asks the 17 year old should she get banned. The twitch streamer is in her 30's asking a 17 year old that should never have happened but he says no. T gets to stay in the server, her boyfriend doesn't leave her and she tries to create a pity party for herself saying she's scared of other people finding out and losing her friends if she's kicked out the server and she doesn't want to be alone. The 17 year old tells all this to me and to a different streamer to really get it off his chest. He shows the streamer and she blames him for talking about it when he said T can stay causing the streamer and the 17 year old to stop all communication. This streamer is a woman in her 30's I must reiterate. The final thing I find out before I stop interacting with that discord is that T was groomed by someone in the same discord and the person who did it wasn't kicked he decided to leave of his own accord.

TLDR: a pedophile and two groomers were allowed to stay in a discord for a children's game with no repercussions so please monitor who your children talk to.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

As important as this thread may be, since this discussion really isn't about suicide, it should have been posted in the off-topic forum.

 

[Gstreater]

As important as this thread may be, since this discussion really isn't about suicide, it should have been posted in the off-topic forum.

That's okay I wasn't sure where to put it, I think it's been moved

 

[radiohead]

it's sadly not often enough that older people who didn't grow up in recent eras of the internet are aware of how common and easy it is to be in or in very close proximity of a situation like that happening. as someone who was fairly well known in spaces relating to kids' games when i was one myself, i narrowly avoided exploitation many times (bar one.) some people i was friends with werent so aware. if i had kids in this age, with the experience i have i just wouldn't allow them access to the internet without my presence in making sure they're safe enough. all i hear on the news is about 'screen time' when it's the space provided to predators which is the issue in most cases imo. it is not an overreach

i'm not sure how many eyes this will catch on this site but i'm thankful that younger you knew to speak up about it regardless of the streamer's failure to act on it

 

[Higurashi415]

there isnt enough attention on these things, I agree with you. moderating a discord server is tough, but if you're not up for the challenge you shouldnt create one

 

[Forveleth]

but if you're not up for the challenge you shouldnt create one

This can also be said about children.

Very often now the responsibility of watching children falls on the website/app/community owner. Whatever happened to parents watching their own damn kids?

 

[Higurashi415]

This can also be said about children.

Very often now the responsibility of watching children falls on the website/app/community owner. Whatever happened to parents watching their own damn kids?

I completely agree. It's insane to me how socially accepted unrestricted access to Internet through smartphones/tablets for kids is.
That been said, child exploitation is strictly against Discord's ToS (no wonder)