Believe it or not, it used to be a thing, even some schools would teach you the dos and don'ts of online interactions, including things like "don't upload your real name or any information that could link back to you", "don't click dubious links and be suspicious of things sent to you", "if you see something bad, tell your parents/teacher/an adult", etc...

Social medias (and Google + Facebook in particular) threw that notion away and encouraged displaying your real identity for data gathering, and it reached a point where not only people are unable to not share their private infos with strangers online, it became the norm.

And so we reach that point where we're trying to fix the symptoms of the problem rather than the cause, by adding restrictions demanding you to make accounts, post an ID, display your real data, etc... I'm sure you can see where this is going and how it's gonna end.

Children can be taught to be careful online, yet it's usually their parents (and schools, guardians, grandparents, etc.) flooding public social media with their names, faces, locations, and milestones for strangers to see while they are still infants. Imagine lecturing kids about privacy when it was adults that handed over their digital footprint before they could even object. If anything, children need to be taught to protect themselves from their elders' oversharing.

This is both good; and bad.

Good because NG’s will be a little bit of a safer space for some. But bad because we will be losing a large chunk of our younger prodigy’s on this site, more people will now try to circumvent the changes with VPN’s and bypass proxies, and it will only make things worse on the privacy side of things for all involved.

Thank God I live in a country where I don’t need to choose between showing my information to an unknown or untrustworthy ID system on the internet, or just not bothering with an oppurtunity for the sake of my privacy.

As an anon artist, who does not like to share even my most basic of details on the internet, including my face and birth name for goodness sake; I think these changes will do more behind the scenes damage than any good. I literally had to make my age visable last year because people re either just really stupid and don’t see that I make M rated content (my podcast) — or won’t follow me because my age isn’t visible which is the fairer excuse. And even that for me was a boundary I didn’t want to cross.

The A tag I never browse at all, so the pr0ns don’t concern me as much. But what concerns me is the visability for these particular artists. Not just bewb sketchers, but NSFW VA’s and Vocalists, who arguably suffer the least amount of traffic on this site even in its current state.

Mitigating the minors-accessing-pr0ns problem with site devs with amazing potential in age restriction coding? A good idea.

Mitigating the problem with an ID check system that literally promises to compromise your privacy, your childrens privacy (despite what the UKOPA law is trying to imply.) and your ability to remain Anon on the internet being compromised? Terrible idea.

I hope the ones that have to leave; will return with the same energy and drive that led them to sign up here in the first place when they were a little younger.

Ofher than that; welcome to the dark age of anti-internet neutrality, AI hell, and oppressive digital acts made by cowpat sniffing madmen in fancy suits that call themselves politics.

During the last weekend I "reacted" to a ton of posts on the last 12 pages. At times it's hard to "pseudo-reply" with a tiny face when the topic itself is so depressing at times. ("Do you cheer for the statement or do you cry at their shoulder...?")

So for those still following or participating in the conversation:

I want to thank all the people voicing their very real concerns here! Not just about Newgrounds or the "current day" legislation of the political landscape but also about the kind of behavior from a generation of parents who grew up with his technology and who should know better - rather than to blame "the internet" for what is essentially a problem with their own parenting style.

At times I actually think: "Is it me? Am I the crazy one?!"

And it just feels good hearing that I am not as alone as I think I am and that rational people actually do reflect on these things - even if they don't always voice their opinion in a public space.

I always have to remind myself that it's never to "save the kids" no matter what they say.

Even if some truly believe that, the reason these things are introduced is never to "save the kids" and there's something else that's a much higher motivation

Exactly. It's to keep network services like Cloudflare free from liability in order to appease advertisers and payment processors. But you either play ball or get de-platformed (or get charged £18 million, I guess).

what if im still <16 when the 16 update happens???? I need some place to say stupid stuff and im not going 2 twitter!!!!!

You’re account will be spared according to Tom fulp

He said that 13 year-olds won't get banned after the minimum age was increased to 14 so you're fine (assuming he does the same with people under 16 when that update happens)

Creeps will just pay the $3

Oh god, the final part about neuralink creeps the shit out of me and I hope to be already dead when this might become a reality. I agree with the rest though.

I barely recognize the internet now. Used to be a fun place to connect with people now its just bleh.

thank the old fucks at the government

I'm of a similar mind, however it would be hypocritical of me in a way - I used to browse NG at like 6-7 years old (can't exactly remember), and just look how well I turned out! Right guys? Guys?

Anyway, I just now remembered seeing one of Zone's animations when I was like 11ish and it dawned on me, that was probably one of the first depictions of a vagina I ever saw... hmm. Simpler times.

I think that's partially connected to the development process of certain kinds of sites - as well as the outsourcing.

"Back in the day" many sites tried to offer a lot of things. In some cases they tried to add everything and more. Some MMORPGs went through the effort of advertising free "fan-site kits" - just so a handful of users who actually had ambitions in that regard could slap something together and then immediately abandon their project - loudly signaling to visitors that this might not be the game they are looking for if the websites people make for it look like ruins.

Today, most sites just copy "formulas" that work, rather than innovating. That includes not doing what people don't use or ask for. Most people don't go to Wikipedia because they want to engage with the community; they want something specific and they want to spend as little time as possible on the task. They might get sidetracked and browse, but their focus will be whatever they originally came for.

A more recent example for the outsourcing parts of traditional websites would be: "Why go through the stress of moderating a forum when you can just create a Discord server? Who gives a damn about the privacy of their user base - just let somebody else handle that headache..."

It's not just outsourcing, it's standards, that's why you can't use a custom background on youtube anymore among many more things. Consistency, standards, and if you don't adapt support is dropped for you or something. There's a ton of research that can be done on this topic alone, a lot that I had read and watched and a lot I had forgotten because I needed more space in my mind for my fantasies of slutty mcslut. I will never regret this

You don't have to hide the paywalling of formerly free features behind this guise of bending the knee to big brother or online safety or whatever. Online safety is important yes and running a website especially one of this volume isn't free, anyone knows that. Just be honest and any NG fan will get it mang.

The internet is truly dying though; aside from the low possibility of a good carrington event the internet will be the next TV before we know it.

So now I won't be able to send memes to my frens? bummer.

Unless you pay the fulp with the supporter status

All the measures to keep kids safe are fine, but putting pictures in PMs behind a paywall sucks.

Like, you are already restricting PMs for minors, and everyone should be aware of Internet basic safety. You can get shocking images in Discord servers and Twitter or whatever too, you have no way to avoid it (you can block the person and not see it anymore though), and it's not so frequent that people aren't doing fine. I think people can survive after seeing one bad image and reporting the troll.

Also, the laws also suck, but that's not Newground's fault. Kinda hate what the Internet is becoming lately... enforced age verification to see porn art is bananas, what happened to not letting young kids alone on the Internet? I do hope they make these things' privacy strong at the very least. And I hope my country never does this shit, that too lol

Regardless of my own stance on the matter, "other places are bad at stuff" might be a point of data that provides context, but makes for a poor argument in a discussion.

Several big hosters of adult entertainment videos have an age check that boils down to "You're old enough for this stuff? Click Yes or No?" that a person can bypass without even being able to read and write (or operate a keyboard).

Hell, even SubscribeStar fills in a "legal" date immediately after you click on the field to confirm your age...

"Certain sites" have been lackluster in their age determining methods for decades, just so potential customers would like their site better - and now all of those sites have to pay the price. I like looking at smut on the internet, but honestly: Not only did they do it to themselves, they had it coming...

While I am of the opinion that the various sites share part of the blame, I agree that the current situation is predominantly the parents' fault. From my understanding it is tempting to just offload entertaining/distracting their offspring when they are already overstressed from work, chores, various things they need to take care of because they have a kid, and they are desperately craving some peace and quiet - or a social life...

"What is the worst that can happen...?" D:

But then it happens. And if the parents are shit people, they will then try to deflect the responsibility for their own actions onto somebody else. And why not the government? Other people will instantly agree that the government is to blame for a ton of stuff that is wrong in the world. Those parents do not want "a solution" - they just don't want to be "at fault".

"My 3 year old son injected himself with my insulin and got really sick. I'm suing the company that made the syringe for making it so easy for children do use..."

Does this sound outlandish to you? "Child safety locks."

Programs such as Net Nanny (not sponsored) have been around for almost as long as the internet was accessible by the public. (For reference: Where I live, even having a computer in your household was a rarity in 1994. Somebody noticed a problem there long before it became widespread...)

But that doesn't mean a thing if legal guardians never purchase a license and install the damn thing! Those parents have some growing up to do themselves before they are "ready" to take care of children of their own. But evidently that doesn't happen and we morally cannot take away peoples' reproductive rights. Because that would be absolutely monstrous! (compare the last statement to page 7, if you will...)

Looking back at this thread over a month later, I feel bad for speaking my mind on this situation. I’m clearly too young to understand why this is happening and all of the adults in this thread made some good points. I really hate that this is happening for all of the UK users but there isn’t anything we or @Tom himself can do about it.

I knew this platform was getting worse, but I did not expect features for 2 decades to be locked off. It sad knowing PM's here once an unchanged feature for decades had to be changed. I've never seen people send me gore, but this is depressing.

WTF. I remember that many years ago, specifically 2012 because someone posted that in a roblox comment's section on a place.

To me, the best thing is it should be a feature locked after 5 years to curb botting, but maybe 1 year of being a supporter on top of that as a perm feature.As a thank you letter.. I am surprised that people would post gore in another person's DM's. The fact payment processors got mentioned here is something that I knew would get alerted or mentioned that will spell doom for many sites. I wouldn't be surprised if another purge happens, but it is far from Tom Fulp's control, I genuinely hope not as it would hurt the site dearly. In a way hurt innocent artists that want to avoid A.I. Generation entirely as... As someone who uses multiple sites... I don't blame younger artists to come here that don't want to see Ai generation spam and how disgusting that could get, it already ruins Youtube. At least this place doesn't make you pay for blacklisting, which is excellent... Users that are older, I view this site as a break from seeing annoying mislabeled " I can't blacklist, unless I pay-up tag" crap... I think of this site as it is built on so much spaghetti code, and a foundation of cards to balance between what users can post here, and payment processors, lawsuits like from Nintendo, and juggling country laws. As it'll be a game of " by pleasing no place, nobody is happy. ".

That I would say mostly died when General died. To be fair, the modern internet's people vs. then. I can see why most sites buckle on having that but... Corruption of the youth is a problem due to bad parenting first and foremost. People with too much time on their hands just ruin it for the rest of us. BBS's General is a memorial and experience that only 2000's-pre General removal users will love, but the people that ruined it. I know I am not on keen terms with some people, but nowadays, have some respect. Some people are just too tired to handle the same stuff from ten years ago.

I am pretty happy about the Grandfather Clause as it is not harming users that are older. I will say, this will put a strain on this website's userbase in the future though and take it as if UK goes stricter, it may force radical changes for ratings that aren't just filtered A, but removed or just remove their service from the UK. I do not blame NG for having to do this, but I am definitely not for Digital ID as it solves nothing, but creates more problems as we all know that data breaches happen.

Amen, I am with you on that. It's more or less why I leave and lurk... The internet to me is something that I leave, and enjoy just working in a restaurant for. Just help preparing food makes me happier, but when I was younger, the inverse was true. When my Co-workers talk about their lives or the stuff. The more I see unwanted users that are minors. I do not blame them for flocking to sites like these, but it just makes it worse for everyone else. I barely recognize the internet from 2015 to now. Artificial intelligence being obsessive and shoved in my face is so annoying. As did we not learn Megaman Exe's world was a world with " The World Wide Web and everything connected to machines". I feel we live in a worse version of that. Alexa's are creepy. I find a basic job better than the internet, and I worked for a failing and overworked place. I rather have that, compared to " Who's the next doxxer? or What will be the next legal policy to ruin the net like 2016's net neutrality"? Seeing 4chan THEN vs. NOW. I don't recognize it, the first time I heard people being banned on 4chan was a surprise.

The modern net to me is just malicious low quality content or some ID or Paywall thing. The thing that I found peace with would be reading.

I genuinely forgive this change, as this was not in anybody's control. Legal ID or paying? They're both a bummer, but paying to see it... It sits very mixed for me. If it is a one time payment for that feature, okay, that is reasonable. I hope the british people are doing okay and also Florida is too.

I may've not been raised well, gotten into crap I wasn't supposed to in the early days of Discord, and when I see any person at a restaurant with a kid with an Ipad... One part of me wants to be enraged as. WTF are you doing, not socializing with your child while you have the time not at work? Work is something I find I take great pleasure in, having a job.

The older I get, the more fortunate I was to live in a pre-cellphone and pre-tech dominated world. As physical locations I once knew like playgrounds have long since been torn down. What can -18 people go or do? The net or a job.

I see it as a partial... Beginning of the end for NG for people wanting to come here for the raunchy western style art. That'll definitely dampen the userbase as let's never forget tumblr's purge for helping to boost this platform as it is a part of this site's history. I would say one part a corporation problem, but this is mostly due to bad parenting. I am shocked to see a purely 2000's user these days. 2010's or late like me feel rare. :X Considering, I view this platform's average as LOWER than twitter half of the time. 16 Is a good enough fit, but R.I.P. UK and Florida for having the government involved, crap like that encourages VPN's for a reason. Anything to reduce the amount off minors is a net-positive in my opinion. I come once in a while, but I would say I moved on. Seeing these changes with a good legal reason...

As disgusting as the " finding their first hentai porn" sounds. Considering, I consider this place " The normie NSFW site".... At least here, you go out of your way to look and find it while Discord's predator problems, RBLX's notoriously bad moderation and exploits... Twitter's chaos... Oh what a site that has done a 360 for how I viewed it, but it is a case of wolf packing. Where minors get manually called out or in places they should not be... Leading to a general BTFO and PSA on their presence to basically remove off of the platform with pure hostility. NG's approach is at least a positive cull rather than the website's users having to do the action. As if you are just a minor. It's not a huge microphone to exile, but a watchful eye on the user to avoid legal or social trouble.

The best way I can describe is that " Protect the children" is one of the most manipulative mantras ever. I had similar issues like Net Neutrality when growing up. The UK is a ticking time bomb, like some US States. This site is at least addressing the large age range issue which does make me happy. I will cherish the wild west of the net in the 2000's till mid 2010 when it became crap. 2016 I would say was the last year of youtube being good. Each passing day; Digital-ID is creeping closer... I miss when keeping kids off the net was the norm or a harsh line between age groups was common.