At 1/30/25 12:33 PM, OnixDark wrote:

At 1/30/25 08:35 AM, HeroPapaya wrote:I don't like living in this timeline. Why does privacy have to be such a fantasy thing? I feel like Ellis Redding at the end of Shawshank redemption. Privacy is something I could talk about a lot; I'm not sure that would be the most suitable thing to do in this forum however. I think that one day during my lifetime it will feel normal to have surveillance in our homes, and people have smartphones so in a way it's already like that. ("I don't care about privacy since I've got nothing to hide")

On the topic of pm images; it feels a bit harsh to limit it to supporters. It would feel a bit more fair to say one month of supporter status may grant unlimited permission to send images in pms. I do understand the concern, I have seen some things myself at a young age (specifically targeted at young people..) that I wish I didn't. People will be people.
Another possible solution could be limiting the ability to send images in pms to accounts that are like 3 month old or something; that could be somewhat circumvented however by mass creating accounts.
I wonder if algorithms could be used to recognise all common shock images and instantly ban the offender for sending them

an algorithm would NOT be ideal because:
1) high risk of false positives (just browse the audio appeal thread while ignoring the kids who want to add copyrighted music to geometry dash to see what i'm talking about)
2) artists who draw gore and people who commission gore images from them exist in this site and may want/need to use the DM system for reference sharing and/or feedback requesting. imagine 2 horror artists share images of nasty injuries to use as a reference for how to better draw their monsters. do those people deserve to get a ban for trading references with each other, even if they would never send unrequested gore to anyone?

that said, i agree with the other things you said. maybe after you've been a supporter for X months you get a free pass to send images? though demanding to be an active supporter helps sustain the site...

At 1/30/25 07:28 PM, HeroPapaya wrote:

At 1/30/25 12:33 PM, OnixDark wrote:

At 1/30/25 08:35 AM, HeroPapaya wrote:I don't like living in this timeline. Why does privacy have to be such a fantasy thing? I feel like Ellis Redding at the end of Shawshank redemption. Privacy is something I could talk about a lot; I'm not sure that would be the most suitable thing to do in this forum however. I think that one day during my lifetime it will feel normal to have surveillance in our homes, and people have smartphones so in a way it's already like that. ("I don't care about privacy since I've got nothing to hide")

On the topic of pm images; it feels a bit harsh to limit it to supporters. It would feel a bit more fair to say one month of supporter status may grant unlimited permission to send images in pms. I do understand the concern, I have seen some things myself at a young age (specifically targeted at young people..) that I wish I didn't. People will be people.
Another possible solution could be limiting the ability to send images in pms to accounts that are like 3 month old or something; that could be somewhat circumvented however by mass creating accounts.
I wonder if algorithms could be used to recognise all common shock images and instantly ban the offender for sending them

an algorithm would NOT be ideal because:
1) high risk of false positives (just browse the audio appeal thread while ignoring the kids who want to add copyrighted music to geometry dash to see what i'm talking about)
2) artists who draw gore and people who commission gore images from them exist in this site and may want/need to use the DM system for reference sharing and/or feedback requesting. imagine 2 horror artists share images of nasty injuries to use as a reference for how to better draw their monsters. do those people deserve to get a ban for trading references with each other, even if they would never send unrequested gore to anyone?

that said, i agree with the other things you said. maybe after you've been a supporter for X months you get a free pass to send images? though demanding to be an active supporter helps sustain the site...

I did not consider the risk of false positives. It does not seem fair if gore artists would be hindered from sending images.

A big portion of my pms have been bug reports. Sending images can be very helpful for that.

At 1/30/25 04:56 PM, Quarl wrote:There never was "small government," it was just a tagline used by republicans to paint an image of a government run by the good-old-boys. I'm kind of surprised you've never heard a conservative go on about how a government should be small enough to have absolutely no effect on our lives but big enough to tell gay people they can't get married. A government should be small enough to not have the power to take away our guns but big enough to supply all our police with military gear and weapons. "Small government" has been used by conservatives in the US as a subversive talking point for at least the last 50 years. The only time in our history we had anything resembling a "small government" was at the start when we had a much smaller country anyways and the only people that could vote were white land owning males.

I also like the phrase "constitutional originalist" because everyone seems to forget that part where white land owning males had all the power. Clarence Thomas claims to be a constitutional originalist, which is probably the most entertaining fact about his political views. Sorry if I displayed any political bias in my response but I really find the term "small government" an annoyingly deceptive phrase.

At 1/29/25 10:00 AM, TomFulp wrote:Flash Forward kicks off on February 1st! If you’d like to help with the prize pool, please use the donation option on our Supporter page and PM me a heads up that you donate towards Flash Forward.

In the meantime, here are some things that have been going on this month, along with more plans for this year.

This month we raised the minimum sign-up age to 14 and we intend to gradually raise it this year until we settle on 16 as the minimum age. This keeps us more compliant with legislation in places like Australia and Florida but also feels like a good fit for Newgrounds. Australia may also be requiring ID checks, we’ll have to wait and see what they settle on and what they offer on that front later this year.

Existing accounts will be grandfathered, meaning we won’t be deleting accounts that joined before the change. If you are an artist who was hoping to participate on NG but are too young, please keep honing your craft, we look forward to seeing you here some day!

We’ve also changed the PM system, so that sending images via PM is now a Supporter feature. Reasons for this are people abusing the system with shock photos, the potential for creepy stuff happening and to better comply with the UK Online Safety Act.

The next round of updates will make it so you can't PM a minor account unless they follow you, message you first, or are friends with you. This is also in line with UK regulatory guidance but also for the best overall. If you never noticed, there is already a flag button in each PM you receive, if you ever get something creepy.

If you live in the UK there is more excitement on the way. Starting in July, we will be required to verify your age in order to toggle the Adult filter. There is currently no way we can do this without charging you money and we’re not keen to do that via Paypal or Stripe. Ideally a better option will arrive in the months ahead, such as a UK digital ID that we can check for free.

Various states and countries are rushing into age verification laws that are a total mess and a burden for everyone involved; no one wants to show their ID to random websites. We personally hope progress is made with the Digital Age Assurance Act (DAAA), which would require device-level age verification. This means you would verify your age once on your phone and on your personal desktop PC / Mac profile, at which point it could pass a true or false value to apps and websites. This makes so much more sense than what is happening now and would allow sites like NG to verify age in a consistent, simple and costless way.

In other news…

Pixel Day winners will be announced next month, probably after the Best of January. Please take some time to enjoy, vote on and review the Pixel Day entries!

https://www.newgrounds.com/collection/pixel-day-2025

The NG Documentary Kickstarter is almost to $50k out of the $80k goal, please consider contributing to its success!

Expect some downtime today around 1pm EST as the site undergoes a number of structural changes.

At 1/31/25 11:42 AM, WillieCorley wrote:I am glad that I got to enjoy the internet in the wild west days. I initially discovered this website when I was a 13 year old in December 2002, then I made an account when I was a 15 year old on March 26th, 2005. I watched a lot of super edgy content on this website for most of the 2000s, which was a lot of fun. I understand older people want to protect minors, but sometimes being exposed to edgy content on the internet is nowhere near as damaging as people make it out to be. The most traumatizing experience I had as a minor was people being violent to me, not me being exposed to adult content on the internet. You can only preserve innocence for so long before CULTure inevitably corrupts the youth.

A lot of social media is full of porn and full of content promoting porn. Governments can declare a war against pornography, but the internet will always be full of porn. Not to mention the entire entertainment industry has embraced the pornification of American CULTure. Even late night television is becoming more pornographic in content allowed on the public airwaves. There was also a song that got performed that night called PORNSTAR, which is an awesome song by Nessa Barrett, but I was shocked to hear it get played on national television. So yeah, mainstream media is allowed to get more horny, but the government wants to declare war against online pornography.

That said...since the wild west days of the internet are over and government regulators are trying to reduce people's access to porn, I think we will eventually see the age limit on Newgrounds get raised to 18 at some point in the 21st century. Old people destroyed people's spaces to socialize both irl and online. Sucks for them, but as a 35 year old man, it does not directly impact me. To keep this website alive, I am not against seeing all of the minors on this website banned until they turn 18. I feel sorry for them, but the wild west days of the internet are over. We have gone from having 14 year olds create hentai galleries in the 2000s to 14 year olds no longer being allowed to make an account on this website. The lack of rules and enforcement online gave Millennials in their youth a space to be creative and edgy, but the world changed.

At 1/31/25 11:48 AM, WillieCorley wrote:

At 1/31/25 11:45 AM, Anamonator wrote:Honestly the Old people need to get out of the office and let the new generation step in because this is stupid in its self

Old people are screwing up everything. They take pills that allow them to live past the point where their brains work property, then they refuse to give up power. We as a society are screwed. It is only going to get worse, especially since the wrong people are always in power.

At 1/30/25 08:03 AM, cyangorilla wrote:Hah, kids will start taking their parents' phones for porn.
We've gone all the way back to getting an older dude to buy you alcohol.

With how shitty governments are protecting citizen data, these messy regulations will promote the market of identity theft to a new level. I might just end up renewing my national ID card every year just so the old one isn't valid anymore.

It's so ridiculous. Sites that adhere to these rules will suffer and kids who try to watch porn will find it in the shadiest places where the law don't shine (torrent, xyz sites, etc).

At 1/31/25 01:36 PM, Jin wrote:I changed my mind. I support the laws. Good laws.
New idea: users have to take a furry test before they're allowed to use the internet. If they're detected to be a furry, they should not be allowed to interact with anyone age 21 and below.

At 1/29/25 11:11 AM, matt-likes-swords wrote:Anyway, this all sucks. I was 13 when I started using Newgrounds, and a lot of kids are gonna miss out on great content.
They're better off finding their first hentai porn on here rather than on some other weird website.

At 1/31/25 11:51 AM, Anamonator wrote:

At 1/31/25 11:48 AM, WillieCorley wrote:

At 1/31/25 11:45 AM, Anamonator wrote:Honestly the Old people need to get out of the office and let the new generation step in because this is stupid in its self

Old people are screwing up everything. They take pills that allow them to live past the point where their brains work property, then they refuse to give up power. We as a society are screwed. It is only going to get worse, especially since the wrong people are always in power.

OLD PEOPLE SUCK!

But seriously everyone in the government is at least 50 years old. Like seriously move over for the new generation.