App safety and policies
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molly leary
International Friends Network
Moonwalker
KenTheBlindGuy
International Friends Network
International Friends Network
Chrystal A
bryony 🩷
people are entitled to there opinions, but its over 18 for a reason and staying that way
Allie Turner
All I wanna say is that this app is the way it is for a perfectly valid reason, and I don't think it should change just because some people can't accept the fact that this is an 18 and older app. I was so happy when I found out this was 18 and up. Because I've never been on an app where it was only 18 and up. So I really hope it stays this way.
The misfit angel
Alex Chapman
Brandon Cross
Alex Chapman
The misfit angel
Daisy
Brandon Cross
Jayson Tyler
Alex Chapman
Brandon Cross
Baby bee
Baby bee
Alex Chapman
The misfit angel
Brandon Cross
Daisy
Lol it's very silly to suggest that children should be at home with their families and playing with their friends instead of being on the internet. Especially since we're not just talking about children in single digits, but also teenagers who are absolutely going to be online. Even my 10-year-old niece is on her phone constantly. I don't agree that children should be allowed on this app and I have 0 desire to interact with them myself, to be clear, but I do think that instead of further and further restricting where they're allowed to exist on the internet, there should be more spaces that welcome them and actually try to support them and keep them safe. For a lot of demographics, the internet provides necessary outlets and resources that they aren't going to get in their offline lives, and even if it didn't, kids are gonna kid. You can't keep them fully offline and you shouldn't try. It's absolutely fair for Josh to put the over 18 rule in place though as someone who doesn't have the ability to make this platform safe for minors. I was a teenager in online blind spaces once and I don't wish that experience on anyone else.
Alex Chapman
Brandon Cross
The misfit angel
The misfit angel
Alex Chapman
Oh yeah they should definitely do that, but they should also be allowed to be on platforms obviously with parents being responsible for them
The Tone Smith
Yes, it's called at home with their family, playing with their friends etc.
Alex Chapman
Yeah I agree, I guess another thing also that bugs me about shutting kids completely out of platforms is that instead of being like hey sorry you can’t be on here you’re not 18 we should actually be giving them a safe space, like actually helping them rather than getting rid of them, that’s also how I look at it. 
Baby bee
Brandon Cross
yeah, that is a good app and quite an achievement to get it to where it is now.
Alex Chapman
The Tone Smith
To be honest, I'm quite surprised that Josh didn't have to implement age verification checks for this app anyway! I thought due to the UK's online safety act, he would have to, at least for people in the UK and Europe and Australia, the obvious test being that there is content on here that could potentially be harmful to minors, which is all that's required for age verification. Even Wikipedia has to do it now from what I heard!
The Tone Smith
Mastadom has a detectable traffic pattern, and relies on specific ports to work. If they want to ban it, they will just ban it as a class of app. It's like they could ban all torrenting in the UK if they wanted to, but it does have some legitimate uses.
molly leary
Allie Turner
Well, we all understand where you're coming from Alex, but at the same time, Josh is the developer, and I just think we should all just let him do what he wants to do with his app. If he wants to continue 18 and over, then he should definitely do that. Like I said, I'm glad he's doing that, because not many apps have age restrictions, and I really think they should. So, this is his app, and he should make the decisions for it.
Alex Chapman
Mabelin Ramirez
Brandon Cross
Alex Chapman
Jayson Tyler
The Tone Smith
@alexchapman what do you want, no under 18s and light touch rules and regulations as a consequence, or allow under 18s, but then we have to go premium and pay to use this app because it's the only way we could have proper moderators. You choose! You can't have it both ways. And by the way regarding Mastadom, if it hasn't been barred already from the United Kingdom, it soon will be! All apps and social media platforms have to have age verification systems in place now. If they don't, they can be fined millions! Because that platform is decentralised, there is no centralised authority to implement age verification, which means it will probably be blocked ultimately.
Baby bee
Alex Chapman
Jayson Tyler
Alex Chapman
Right, but then what about Mastodon, there’s no thing there saying that no one under 18 is allowed there, or I should be more specific, the tweesecake.social instance has no thing forbidding under 18s from joining, and as far as I can tell there is no parental controls on Mastodon. There seems to be a bit of a difference there. And I would hope at some point there can be a proper moderation team, that way we don’t have to be so restrictive, and if drama does start we handle it accordingly, and not pull a jacket FM and well, I don’t need to go into that can of worms LOL.
Josh S
@alexchapman To allow under age users (under 18), you are required to have parental controls within the application and stronger moderation features/handling. As we have neither, we don't meet the legal requirements to allow such users. I would never have the resources to take on the extra work required due to the size of the app. Other social media apps (E.G; TikTok, Facebook) have large moderation teams all over the world.