Hi Mook,
It is a good idea but unfortunately one that we cannot do.
We have certain obligations to meet with regards to the online safety of all our users in particular the young ones. If we were to have a seperate section in the forum for under 16's, we would have to monitor everything that is put on there to ensure that no personal details or information relating to the poster was displayed.
The only way of doing that is to fully moderate all the posts, in kind, similar to the 'Freebies' section.
We have had to put a minimum age limit on the forum for registration of 13 years to comly with legislation that has been put in place by COPPA, The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Rules apply to individually identifiable information about a child that is collected online, such as full name, home address, email address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child. The Act and Rules also cover other types of information -- for example, hobbies, interests and information collected through cookies or other types of tracking mechanisms -- when they are tied to individually identifiable information.
Which again is unfortunate as there are a lot of 'tiddlers'
out there who would love to join in as my email shows.
Unfortunately these have to be implemented across all responsible online sites owing to the sad fact that there are individuals who 'patrol' the 'net looking for children to befriend. A specific area on a forum for children/teenagers would be like a magnet to the perverts. Sad but true.
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