2 replies to this topic

[Lord Vader]

I would like to clarify our policy on the use of the PoliceSpecials.com forum by young persons.

The Policespecials.com forum is intended for use by persons aged 16 years and above. Persons under that age may participate, subject to the conditions set out below.

By using this forum, you are assumed to have read and agreed to these conditions. If you are under age, and do not agree to these conditions, you must cease using the forum immediately.

• On registering, a user who is under age must contact the Host or any Moderator to confirm their age.
  
• The user agrees that they will immediately make a parent or guardian aware that they have registered with Policespecials.com, and a parent or guardian should confirm to a Moderator that they are content for the user to participate. This confirmation must include a contact name and telephone number for the parent or guardian. The contact information will not typically be used unless we are uncomfortable with the details provided.
  
• The user may not display any private e-mail address, website or MSN identity on the PoliceSpecials.com forum.
  
• The forum's Personal Messenger ("PM") and email features will be disabled for under-aged users.
  
• The user is not permitted to have any "offline" contact with any other forum user through the PoliceSpecials.com forum. Any attempt or invitation to engage in such activity must be reported to a Moderator immediately.
  
• Anyone found acting contrary to the above will be suspended from the Forum indefinitely.

Moderators should only be contacted via email (use the link in any moderator's profile) - do not post this information in open forum, it kind of defeats the object

Any questions or concerns about this policy, please feel free to email / PM me or any of the moderators.

[Lord Vader]

Just some background information on why the moderators and I thought fit to introduce these rules...

This change affects all existing and future users of the forum who are aged under 16 years old.

It's been done to protect our under-age members, and to protect me and the other forum staff. In light of the recently introduced laws outlawing "grooming" of minors by paedophiles on the internet, we have to be seen to have taken whatever steps are possible to protect under age users of our forum. God forbid anything ever happened like that here - apart from the harm caused to the under-age forum-goer, can you imagine the screaming headlines in the tabloids - "Paedophile Uses Police Site to Groom Minor" or worse.

To this end, while under age visitors are still very welcome, we (the mods and I) decided to introduce these new rules, and most importantly, to remove the ability for under-age users to communicate "privately" with other users via the PoliceSpecials.com forum, hence the removal of the email and PM facilities for those users.

Let me be quite clear - this hasn't been brought in as a reaction to any sort of event or accusation on the forum, it is an entirely pre-emptive and protective measure.

I am sorry to the users who are affected, but I hope you can understand our reasoning.

[Lord Vader]

Ladies and gents, a reminder of this policy. If you're a registered member of the site, and you're aged 15 or under, you need to tell me or one of the moderators so we can move you to the 'junior members' group. This will mean you can still read messages and post replies, but limits your ability to communicate with other members.

If we find out from other means that someone is under age, we will just move them to the 'junior members' group with no further discussion, and may take other steps to limit their use of the site if we feel there's been any attempt to deceive us.