Cigarettes Being Promoted On Gaia

[KawaiiKohaku]

Origamidude

KawaiiKohaku

Garnet Aura Sandydown

Origamidude

If you take away sigs, might as well ban curse words. Hey, how about removing the Gaia plotline all together? A giant tower fell over. That must mean they're trying to replicate the 9/11 event! Oh, how about removing the bra, panty, and boxer items on Gaia? Surely such items are inappropriate for the PG-13 audience! We should take out weapons too, surely these items promote violence. Can't have those around, can we?

First of all, not every curse word should be banned, and I don't think she was telling everyone the plotline should be changed, the 9/11 crisis had two towers . . not one . . and what IF there are bras and panties, at least they're not showing anything ELSE!!

Plus the promotion of violence . . did I see that in her beggining statement??

No he was attempting to blow my argument out of proportion and imply that I'm against everything on Gaia that is the least bit mature to make me seem like an a**.
I am against one thing and I feel I have good reasoning.

The point I was trying to get across is that you shouldn't be concerned with a little item so trivial as a cig, seeing as there are other things that can be nitpicked on this site that are much worse than that. I hardly think the general audience of Gaia would be influenced to smoke just because Gaia has such an item with it's "provocative" discription. And besides, there are a lot of characters in Anime that smoke. And since Gaia is based on Anime culture, it only seems reasonable.

And sorry for going off like that. It rather annoys me when people discuss the negative qualities of something so frivolous as this. sweatdrop

What items are worse than cigs might I ask?
Yeah, there's the bottles but they're much more ambiguous. No one can say those are alcohol and certainly little kids wouldn't see it that way though some of the older users would enjoy it as such. A cigarette is obvious there's no way you can throw that off as anything else.
And sorry if I don't see any positive qualities in cigarettes.

[Akane1412]

the cig is good for cosplay and besides it-s just pixies so what about it ?

you also won-t make let-s see ... hum a jacked up cape and use it irl just cuz you have one in gaia right ?

[Origamidude]

Blah, why do I even bother?

[KawaiiKohaku]

Origamidude

Blah, why do I even bother?

Good question. domokun

[TatteredRaven]

First, let me say that I do not like smoking nor do I smoke. But, as you can see my avatar has a cig. Why? Because I like the item, it looks good on my avatar. Heck, I used to play with those candy cigs all the time when I was little until they got banned and never have I smoked. So the point of this post: Just because there's an item of a cig does not mean all the kids are going to try them in real life. Maybe some will, but if they do that's their fault. If you don't like the item then don't buy the dang thing, don't go around whining about how it's bad and needs to be removed. rolleyes

[Jadeth]

Not this again...

Do you really think people will go
"omfg, my avatar looks so cool smoking! Now I'm going to do it too!!!11"

Personally, I think -if- they do that, they deserve to become a smoker. rolleyes

[Hezyfaerie]

Jadeth

Not this again...

Do you really think people will go
"omfg, my avatar looks so cool smoking! Now I'm going to do it too!!!11"

Personally, I think -if- they do that, they deserve to become a smoker. rolleyes

eek That was the point I was about to make.

One: I find it offensive that you think people who use the cig as an accessory are stupid enough to take it up offline.

Two: If you are getting this way about cigarettes where do you stand of the weapons that are goign to be introduced? You think a bunch of people are going to go out and buy pitch forks and carry them around?

It's all pixilated fun so calm it down.

[.+RubberGloves+.]

Hezyfaerie

Jadeth

Not this again...

Do you really think people will go
"omfg, my avatar looks so cool smoking! Now I'm going to do it too!!!11"

Personally, I think -if- they do that, they deserve to become a smoker. rolleyes

eek That was the point I was about to make.

One: I find it offensive that you think people who use the cig as an accessory are stupid enough to take it up offline.

Two: If you are getting this way about cigarettes where do you stand of the weapons that are goign to be introduced? You think a bunch of people are going to go out and buy pitch forks and carry them around?

It's all pixilated fun so calm it down.

Exactly, weapons are gonna be much more obvious than about... 8-10 tiny pixels that are hardly visible. People on this site aren't seriously that stupid, if they are that stupid and do go off and smoke cos their avi looks cool with it, they need to take a break from Gaia cos it's just an avi. It's like those people who end up matching colours in their outfits after staying in the AT too long, they need a break!!! gonk

[George Goat]

Garnet Aura Sandydown

KawaiiKohaku

Iie, iie. I quite agree with the cigarette thing . . that's a but TOO mature. .
nice to see there's another republican on this site

Another republican? Yay! Very nice to see another.

Okay to everyone saying it's a PG-13 site, let's put that aside for a moment and just hear your opinions. Because though it's a PG-13 site there are plenty of kids under 13 on here (hell I pmed a 10 year old the other day) and at least in this country I know smoking isn't legal until the age of 18.

No, actually people below 13 are only allowed through constant parental supervision, as the rules say. If the parents are just dumping them on the computer at that early of an age, can't help but think that's the parent's problem and responsibility, huh? The amount of porn and adult subject matter on the internet is OFTEN talked about, and if the parent doesn't find that information, and doesn't check the ratings to keep their kid 'safe', it's their own fault, not the other users and a site.

And wow...I always wondered what it was about some republicans I didn't like...

Ohh...now I see, it's because they try to go against the solid rules already set down, and try to take rights away that are allowed! smile
Please note my sarcasm, you just make a bad name for republicans that *aren't* like that.

And no, we won't stop saying it because this is the Gaia GUIDELINE,
How many times does it have to be said? PG-13 allows the talk/promotion of cigarettes and actually some illegal substances too, (weed supporter's guild, anyone?) sex without explicit description of the actual act being done in present tense, etc, etc, If you haven't read these rules already I really don't feel like paraphrasing the whole darn thing.
Now I only hope you don't go harassing the Weed supporter's guild even if I don't like them myself... confused

Why take everyone else's rights away on a little, pixelated site, because anyone dumb enough to start smoking because of a few pixels on screen ends up doing it? They're either people who have other influences and were going to smoke anyway, and parents who would leave their children unsupervised long enough to have them do that are at fault, not a site. Not to mention, the dangers of drugs and informing children about how bad they are start at a VERY young age, dare officers and others go in kindergarten and 1st grade classes now, for goat's sake.

[my helIo kitty]

KawaiiKohaku

I'm sure this has been brought up before but I haven't seen it and it bothers me. Does anyone else think it's wrong that there is a cigarette item for your Gaia character? Gaia Online is a community geared toward, and largely made up of kids and young adults and yet they have a cigarette item that can be purchased for your sprite. Gaia is promoting cigarettes by making them look cool, you buy it for your character as a fasion accessory! It makes me sad that there are all these organizations fighting to try and keep cigarettes and tobacco away from children and yet Gaia, a place that kids flock to, seems to be promoting it. What do you think?
Should the cig go?

Darn, you're right. While we're at it, let's ask them to take out the sexy underwear, too, or else everyone will want to go and wear them in public in real life. Oh, and all that Demonic stuff would have to go; don't want kiddies thinking that they're demons, after all. Hey, let's ban the fir gauntlets, as well, because we don't want kids to set their hands on fire!

Seriously... This site isn't "promoting" cigs anymore than it is "promoting" the eating of chili dogs.

[InternalHardDrive]

Gah, whyyyy do people keep bringing this up? >_>;;; I've seen so many threads on this.

But really, if you're concerned about things being impressionable on children, you should be more worried about some of the content that goes on around here. It's supposed to be a PG-13 site, but for one, people don't always obey it, and then people are allowed to discuss things of a sexual matter if it lies under PG-13. I don't find cigarrettes nearly as potentially harmful for young impressionable children.

Though, people under 13 are supposed to recieve parental permission before they join. Gaia should not be responsible for what happens. It is a PG-13 site, and you can be around people who smoke just by walking down the street. I personally don't see what the big deal is.

[katy-fox]

Gee i have a pimpin' cane and a pimpin' hat - i must be a pimp! twisted

....soon people will start putting dead fish over their heads, because their minds are so fragile and easily influenced by computers! rolleyes

[The Mighty Sushi Database]

anyone who starts smoking after they see a pixalated character on a website doing frankly deserves lung cancer. also its a pg-13 site and people often smoke in pg-13 movies. i smoke but i didn't start because of some stupid pixels or a goddammned cartoon character did.

[Gerbil`]

No, keep the cig right where it is. I use one in my avatars but there's no way in hell I'm about to start smoking. I'm not about to start wearing grass skirts or leather tops just because my Gaia avatar does, and no children are going to say OMG they have a cig on Gaia, I must start smoking!!

[Madam ZZ]

Out of sheer spite, I'm equipping my cig again.