Disclose Minority Status (Age, That Is)!

I just learned that I was "chatting" during and around a game with a person who is still several years away from even getting a driver's license in any civilized country in the world.  That is, he, and I think my chess opponent was a young lad, is a child although there was nothing on his home page or anywhere else which would indicate this.  I learned it when he disclosed it in a message.

He was or is still being subjected to some very abusive postings because of the slowness of his play (by persons who almost certain did not know of his age) and, in learning about this, I was offering my support for his staying with chess.com and dealing with the verbal abuse.  I did not know that I was communicating online with a child - I am 62 years old and I do not "chat" over the internet with children.  Nothing good and plenty bad can come of such encounters which I believe chess.com has a responsibility to deal with.

I would suggest something like the creation of a class of competitors at least under the age of 16 if not 18 which would carry a very positive designation for younger players, rather than anything would would tend to stigmatize or denote as the young person as "lesser than", and having this designation noted on a player's home page or as a symbol by the person's chess.com name.  Of course some children will choose to circumvent or ignore this by not disclosing their birthdate when they register, but this does not mean that it shouldn't be done for the good of the community.

This is not about finding oneself playing against a child - potentialy hard on the ego but nothing more - but is about chess.com facilitating unsupervised, online communications between adults and children.  

Agreed...

Something must be done in relevance to this matter. Perhaps the age could be included in the basic information that appear in a small rectangle when you hover over a player's name?

Thank you Faysal.  Something like you suggested would be more than adequate and the mechanism is already in place for displaying other information.

I'm not so sure as a parent my biggest fear about my child on the internet would be encountering a rude adult on a chess website

There's no way to know a person's age online, so there's no point in displaying it prominently.  You would have adults saying they were 15 and you would have 15 year olds saying they're 50.  Pretty pointless.

By the way I wasn't born in 1919 like my profile says...

Make it like Facebook. Under 13 is not allowed

The biggest technical issue indeed.

Good points, but wrong on the grammar.  Minority means, in addition to other things, a person who has not reached the age of majority by the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.  That aside, though, I appreciate your insights and am sure you are right about the condescension and the like.

Well, 1919 was an interesting year in any event.

Interesting topic...

I completely understand your point of view.  However, as some have already posted, it's hard to verify anyone's age online.  I have played some children here.. some had  their age posted and some haven't.  I also agree some adults can be very rude and misunderstand where the point of view is coming from (a 10 year olds).

With that said.. that 10 year old beat me... more than once so he is not a normal child.  Personally, I do think some type of system should be in play to try to verify someone's age, but I am not sure how this could be done. Once a child does enter the realm of the adults, a bit closer moderation could be implemented to safe guard children from non so good adults.   I do know they moderate conversations here at Chess.com.. as I had been "warned" once for talking politics with a Middle Eastern fellow... and if they can monitor that conversation... once a child has joined and verified his/her age... a more stringent monitoring of whoever plays that child could be put in place.

Just my opinion.

Kim

Wasn't this the whole point of the creation of http://www.chesskid.com/?

Maybe it just isn't publicised enough for people to know of its existence.

I didn't... however, some younger players might want to play in the adult arena, not just with kids their age.  I personally wouldn't intentionally go to chesskid to play someone and sometimes younger players do play way above their ages and would want to find competitive opponents. 

Well, the debate is shaping up

As a 13-year old, I disagree with the opinion that children should play on chesskid. In my opinion, a player should be judged by their playing ability, not their age. You could have a 75-year old player that doesn't know a thing or a 12-year old that outclasses most people.

So, in my opinion, chess.com should at the most mnaybe replace the chat with a limited choice of message such as "Draw" or, "Hi", with any personal info being inputed by chess.com after asking the player.

However, a far more crucial question arises. This is because, often, an opponent distracts a player with chat

I believe such people should be banned from the site as that is next to cheating

What are your views?

Wait, are games restricted to playing other kids on chesskid.com? I assumed they could play anyone, but without access to the chat function, and you wouldn't have notes, messages etc. which 'protects' them from potentially malicious users.

I agree that children should not be restricted to playing other children.

I don't chat in most of my games because the other player does not initiate it or doesn't speak English. I usually enjoy chat when it occurs. I don't chat in Live chess, but in CC chess it's not distracting because you have so much time to move. You can always disable chat, but don't throw it out altogether. 

You can't make a perfect world where you hide your kids from every A-O there is on the net. Let them figure it out -that there are dim wits everywhere including chess.com. If I had kids that young playing on chess.com I would monitor them. Tell them that sooner or later an A-O will show their colors and when they do to just move on. I would advise them to be better than them, accumulate "friends" that they can play chess with. I would advise my child to never to give personal info like their age on the net. NEVER

The chat feature is easily disabled with a single click.

If you could not chat with youngsters on chess.com, it would be pretty tough to give online chess lessons.

Besides, as has already been extensively mentioned, it is [edited - word removed]  near impossible to reliably verify somebodys age online.

Conduct yourself in an honorable manner and quit worrying about being the thought police in an online chess forum.  there are an endless number of venues where people can chat with far less oversight than here.  I wouldn't hesitate to let my kids play on here unsupervised.

age:41, financial status: bankrupt

I'm pretty sure I've seen a mod state that people under the age of 13 aren't supposed to be on this site. The mod also stated there isn't really a way to keep children under that age out because it is so easy to enter a false age.

Many of the youngsters I've met here are very sharp and relatively mature (with some notable exceptions). Most of them are in the mid to upper teens. I've only met one under 13 that I know of, and he is definitely one of the notable exceptions.