Kids on TV Tropes?

On other forums, it's typically clear that most participants are either teenagers or older, since people younger than that tend to stand out in the crowd.

On this site, however, it seems like many more of our users might have been younger than that.

I used to wonder about this back when I was more into this site years ago, and for the record I was in college at the time. But if anything the case for this assumption feels stronger in hindsight. Troper Tales from way back then included everything from complaining about one's siblings to "I peed my pants and mom thought it was because I was lazy" or something like that even in "The Reason You Suck" Speech. (Or if not, it was one of Potty Failure's many examples; not sure how best to check the archives for that. Or whether or not I should.)

In short, stuff that is not exactly what you'd expect from a teenager or adult.

My own, IIRC, had a few mentions of upsetting memories way back from junior high, but that's more for seeing them as symptoms of some kind of broader problem. But those memories stick with you more than those of soiling oneself at home as a child. And I recall getting along much better with my older sister as we grew up.

Obviously this on its own is not slam-dunk evidence there are more kids here than on other comparably-family-unfriendly websites, but it's meant to simply get the ball rolling on whether or not more kids post here, if so, why, and in any case how best to address this.

edited 10th Feb '16 10:23:00 AM by neoYTPism

Is it a problem if a lot of children post here?

They're impressionable, they're emotionally vulnerable, and quite frankly, either trait sounds concerning with the effect of any webforum, let alone one with as much access to family-unfriendly content as this one, on their psychological development.

I don't think this site is significantly more unfriendly than most of what you find on the Internet. If anything, it leans in the other direction.

There is no effective way to age-verify an account without requiring a credit card or other proof of identity. Otherwise, we're put in the unenviable position of banning any accounts discovered to belong to people below 13 or whatever. This seems impractical, to say the least.

Let's face it: As long as no one is posting inappropiate links and the kids aren't causing any problems; what's the point of kicking children off the site?

I woul d also point Rifle of Responsibility at their parents, but I'm nood for that argument today.

edited 10th Feb '16 12:31:12 PM by RabidTanker

I got into TV Tropes when I was like, 12, so I don't think it'd be that much of a problem for kids. While the site doesn't hold back when it needs to discuss adult topics, it generally leans to more general audiences otherwise. And compared to most other websites, it usually doesn't go out of its way to force in adult language or anything. I'd give us a light PG-13, honestly.

edited 10th Feb '16 12:48:08 PM by NoUsername

For people who aren't mature enough to handle a particular topic, they've been outright told to leave the topic and find something better for them. So it's easy to solve.

Well, I'm actually 17, so I'm clearly a young adult, but I still like TV Tropes as well as I like wikis. I don't really mind if kids come to the pages of TV Tropes.

Hello, I would just like to say that, as a 14 year old on this wiki (my parents trusted me enough to let me join) , I don't think that the site would be a bad influence on someone with the emotional maturity to handle the more "grown-up" topics handled here. And even if they weren't a member, a majority of tv tropes's content would still be accessible to them. I mostly avoid any overtly inappropriate entries here,and personally think it would be okay for kids of a certain age to come on here, although this is from a kid's point of view.

That's a good point; nearly everything on TV Tropes is readable (if not writable) without an account, and most of what isn't is available only to mods.