The GD and child porn, a serious problem and a good solution

[Atreides Zero]

So ignoring all the other issues of the GD for the moment (not like SF doesn't hear about it once or more a day anyways) I'd like to direct attention towards a growing problem in the GD. Many of it's frequent users like to trade nude images of themselves or even just post them in the GD forum. This is quite obviously highly illegal (since most of the users I'm referring to are under 1 cool , as well as highly dangerous to the stupid children who do it. Now while Gaia obviously isn't hosting, or even allowing these images to be posted (since most are deleted and expunged from the site ASAP, and it's against their ToS) it is still an issue for concern.

Now ignoring any potential concern about the government's potential interference (I have honestly no idea how they'd see this issue) I think Gaia still needs to take action on this issue, especially since they've been discussing more and more the safety of their users. As I see it Gaia has one clear cut choice for dealing with this problem:

Disable images in the GD.

As this is the epi-center of the problem, and the forum where this is most likely to occur I think that the best solution to help put a permanent stop to this issue is to revoke their image posting abilities.

Now I know people are going to start spouting frivolous claims about how all that's going to occur is forcing the thing more under ground. Or that it will force them into other forums, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. While the users might start posting their images in other forums, other forums are much better about reporting such incidents than the GD. Which means mods will see it, they will probably see it quicker, and it will probably be deleted quicker. If it goes underground that merely means it goes to PMs and if the admins ever manage to weed out the PM cyber-ers then they'll find a way to get the image swappers as well.

And this is all ignoring the added benefit of the Gd being cleansed of gore/porn trolls. If you can't post an image, you can't spam it 150 times.

So I implore you Gaia, I know we've had our differences, but you can't turn down this idea, since it might even help you look better to those child safety groups that once convinced you to pan the word '*****' from your site.

[xBillehx]

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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[[XusernameXdeletedX]]

xBillehx

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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There are no "nice discussion topics" in the GD. People who want to actually have a discussion go to the ED. I agree with the OP.

[xBillehx]

[XusernameXdeletedX]

xBillehx

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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There are no "nice discussion topics" in the GD. People who want to actually have a discussion go to the ED. I agree with the OP.

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You obviously dont look or come at really bad times. I've been part of many, many good discussions in the GD. The ED on the other hand, tends to ignore a lot of discussions.

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[Gundamu]

xBillehx

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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That sucks for them. We can't name game rooms because people were abusing that. I'm guessing this would be kind of the same thing.

[Atreides Zero]

xBillehx

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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Tough. The Gd as it stands needs to have it's users reined in and taught that just because they like to do something doesn't mean that they are going to be allowed to. Gaia not enforcing that is what lead to this problem int he first place.

Further more if the Admins ever do get around to actually splitting the GD into two forums, one for actual GD and one for the users who like to troll and be 'prommies' then the image banning would stick with the later and not the former meaning the good discussion that wants a banner could have it, so long as they went to the new GD.

[Sieffre]

What about only allowed whitelisted images? I remember Photobucket and the like being pretty quick to remove offensive/pornographic images.

[Atreides Zero]

xBillehx

[XusernameXdeletedX]

xBillehx

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Dont like. If someone wanted to create a nice discussion topic with a banner and all, they'd be incapable of doing so. I think it honestly needs to be moderated more, but for that to happen we need to report these things more.

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There are no "nice discussion topics" in the GD. People who want to actually have a discussion go to the ED. I agree with the OP.

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You obviously dont look or come at really bad times. I've been part of many, many good discussions in the GD. The ED on the other hand, tends to ignore a lot of discussions.

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That's cause the ED probably still doesn't like anything without 20 lines of sources.



As for your point, if the discussion can't survive as a discussion without a banner, or an image, then it's probably not something that's all that discussable in the first place. Now the GD rules are a lot more lax than back when I frequented the forum, but I still think you need to have a topic that supports it's self if you were to remove the spoon and any images.

[Atreides Zero]

Sieffre

What about only allowed whitelisted images? I remember Photobucket and the like being pretty quick to remove offensive/pornographic images.

If Gaia want's middle ground between no-images and all-images then they could consider that. I'm just saying the easiest method at this point is to just outright deny all images.

[KawaiiKittenCalico]

I think they should get the law involved instead. Get authorities to track down the people doing it and toss them in juvie. Maybe when they get a cold hard dose of reality they'll get a clue that breaking the rules isn't cute or funny, and that there are serious consequences.

Anymore kids are never taught that there are consequences to negative actions. They get away with anything and everything. That they get away with this with no lasting consequences isn't going to do any good. Delete their threads? They'll make new ones. Ban them? They'll make new accounts and brag about being banned. Arrest them? Maybe they'll finally get the idea.

[i shot your president]

i't would a good solution. But I wouldn't like it.

[Pavilo 3]

KawaiiKittenCalico

I think they should get the law involved instead. Get authorities to track down the people doing it and toss them in juvie. Maybe when they get a cold hard dose of reality they'll get a clue that breaking the rules isn't cute or funny, and that there are serious consequences.

Anymore kids are never taught that there are consequences to negative actions. They get away with anything and everything. That they get away with this with no lasting consequences isn't going to do any good. Delete their threads? They'll make new ones. Ban them? They'll make new accounts and brag about being banned. Arrest them? Maybe they'll finally get the idea.

I'm down with this, multiple times over, because frankly if they're breaking the law Gaia should definitely get law enforcement involved.

[Atreides Zero]

KawaiiKittenCalico

I think they should get the law involved instead. Get authorities to track down the people doing it and toss them in juvie. Maybe when they get a cold hard dose of reality they'll get a clue that breaking the rules isn't cute or funny, and that there are serious consequences.

Anymore kids are never taught that there are consequences to negative actions. They get away with anything and everything. That they get away with this with no lasting consequences isn't going to do any good. Delete their threads? They'll make new ones. Ban them? They'll make new accounts and brag about being banned. Arrest them? Maybe they'll finally get the idea.

That's a little more tricky, since I don't believe it's necessarily the most legal thing in the world to use IP manipulation to track down someone who uses your site. And I think that might hurt Gaia more than they'd like.


Plus I'm not sure it's quite a punishable crime to post nude images of yourself online, technically the people committing the crime in that case are the people collecting and/or viewing (I could be entirely wrong here).

[Nymphaea Nouchali]

KawaiiKittenCalico

I think they should get the law involved instead. Get authorities to track down the people doing it and toss them in juvie. Maybe when they get a cold hard dose of reality they'll get a clue that breaking the rules isn't cute or funny, and that there are serious consequences.

Anymore kids are never taught that there are consequences to negative actions. They get away with anything and everything. That they get away with this with no lasting consequences isn't going to do any good. Delete their threads? They'll make new ones. Ban them? They'll make new accounts and brag about being banned. Arrest them? Maybe they'll finally get the idea.

Sounds like you want to get Dateline NBC involved XP

Arresting them is much too extreme if only because the majority of people who are doing it in the first place are doing it for "the lulz" and are generally minors themselves. Do you honestly want to subject them to that? Plus you're also talking about a site in which there are people from all over the world; having a US law enforcement officer barging in on another territory is obviously not a good thing nor is it even that easy to do so. And unfortunately not everyone typically learn their lesson that way. But the main issue is, it would be rather difficult to make a case and it would probably do more harm than good in the long run.

Having said that, I agree that Gaia really needs to crack down on the GD and I like the OP's suggestion of disabling images altogether. Actually, make that links as well in order to prevent people from trying to bypass the rule.

[Atreides Zero]

i qtpi

i't would a good solution. But I wouldn't like it.

The point isn't too like it, the point is that Gaia is tired of letting the GD run wild and that this will be the first step in them forcing the GD users to behave and to cleanse out the things that make their site unsafe to minors.