Faceparty bans over-36s in shock ageist move

[rokov]

Minor social networking site Faceparty has deleted what it describes as "a huge number of accounts" of its users over the age of 36 in recent weeks, in a bid to cut down on sex offenders misusing the site.

"We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which," the company says in a bizarre explanation of the deletion of users’ accounts.

"New government legislation means we need to check older users on the sex offenders list," the company notice continues.

Biggest party on earth?

"This legislation is based upon checking email addresses against a government provided list. Faceparty has never insisted on validated email addresses and can therefore not participate in this new scheme."

The new legislation Faceparty refers to is not actually currently law, merely a proposal from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith for a system whereby sex offenders are required to register their email addresses with the Government.

Serious crime caused decision

"Having discussed the use of our website with the home office and the police, and further some pretty serious crimes caused by older users, we were left with no option but to terminate a huge amount of accounts, and without notice, immediately," adds the notice from Faceparty.

"Despite malicious rumours spread by a few people on the website, it is not true that we have deleted members due to 'ageism'," it added.

TechRadar has tried to contact Faceparty for comment, but they are engaged, which suggests that they are not a particularly large organisation, merely minnows swimming alongside the Facebook, MySpace and Bebo sharks in the social networking pond.

Source-http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/minor-social-networking-site-bans-over-36s-in-shock-ageist-move-370477


Wow, I suddenly became a pervert this year and didn't even know it. Glad I don't have a Faceparty account. :p

[bani-banan]

Why not just ban 13 year olds from visiting such sites?
It's not like the ads are targeted towards them.

"Mom! I saw this Windows Vista ad on the internets. It said that it was more secure than lunicks. plxplxplxpxllx I wants that for my birthday"

[cacogen]

"You need to be invited by someone-in-the-know ...and you certainly won't be getting a password by pestering us, so please stop! We gotta get tough, cos if we're not, this place 'aint gonna rock... and if there's one last thing on this crazy planet we're gonna do? it's see this place ROCK!"



What a bunch of d-bags.

[kardall]

The funny part is that when they banned the 36 yr. olds, they were probably going off of some sort of statistic that had the majority of "Sex Offenders" rated as 36yrs of age and older.

The awesome part is, what about those that are up-and-coming sex offenders in their 20's, who are looking for a new outlet from which they can spring forth their dasterdly deeds?

Anyway... This "[Age Here] yr. olds is when they will do [insert offense here]." story has to get destroyed.

The times that people are committing acts of violence are younger and younger every month. You cannot just say "oh, we provide this site, and anyone that uses it is subjected to our retarded bars of 'who is able to use it cause they may be offenders of a violent nature' attitude."

Life changes, and so do the methods on which we weave our wicked webs.

Most of the sites are probably made to entice the younger generations. But, since when, does the world care about the younger generations until they fall victim to such a crisis such as sex offenders? That is since the publicity has shown it to the greater cause.

Most of the crap that has gone on in the last 10 years (I'll say anyway), has been brought forth due to publication and awareness from some sort of media. I don't know, this is a rant, so whatever.

There are a lot of things that parents have to be aware of now, that they didn't have to be when they were growing up. The largest cause of such things is "communications". Not just the internet, but cell phones and the like. Every way that they communicate, the younger generation has a way to pass on information they don't want their guardians to know about. They do this at a rate that you have to understand the technology before you give it to your kids.

Understanding is Knowledge.

That is all, more rum & coke please... kthxbai.

[oct_dragon74]

"Despite malicious rumours spread by a few people on the website, it is not true that we have deleted members due to 'ageism'," it added.

What the hell is it then???? If they are discriminating people by age, no matter what the reason, it is ageism! Someone ought to sue them.