Personal Information Posts Updated with link.

Jinxx · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 1906

I'm tired of seeing them. It goes from a simple, what do you like to people posting what's your gender, what's your age, pictures and everything in between.

Each of these seperately are harmless but when you piece them all together they start to show a 'picture' of the person posting the information. That 'picture' generates interest from those looking to prey on children. A pm one gets saying, 'Oh, I'm a 13 year old girl and I live in blahblah. Where in blahblah do you live?', MIGHT NOT BE who they're saying they are.

I will start to delete personal information posts.

http://www.netsmartz.org/stories/teresa.htm *Something Nef's asked us to show kids who like to post personal information*

ccb123 · Joined: 04 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

i totally agree with u!!! thats how many perople get kidnapped!!! people should never say who they r inless u r 100% sure u know them!! I have a ton of animals for sale!!! super cheap!!! please buy!!!

Kim101307 · Joined: 08 Jan 2007 Posts: 179

eeek ,and i posted a whats your gender question.sorry about that Embarassed

.i totally agree with you though,there are some pretty sick people out there who would try to obtain peoples personal information like that.ccb123 i think that last part should go in the for sale category. Very Happy

Bezzella · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 3638

Yay Jinxx. It was getting on my nerves, because I wanted to tell everyone to just go jump through a criminal's window or something- make it easier on them. Wow sbf would be weird if I was a mod. Laughing

penguin899 · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 1024

--Agree's! Very Happy

I think its kinda creepy people would post their pictures on here anyway, because, probably, none of us really care what they look like, as long as they are friendly, and a loyal SBF Buddy! --No offense to anyone...-- As for gender, thats really not so personal so I'm not afraid to post that, but age is pretty personal. You really don't no for sure if some of these people are lying or not. Hopefully everyone will remember to only give out personal info if you are POSTIVE you trust them. You probably shouldn't anyways..

Anyway, I'm glad you posted this! It's probably for the best

Jay_Of_Blue_Gables · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 114

totally agree with jinxx! I never give that stuff out.. and no one should. It may seem harmless but can actually be very dangerous. Sad

~*Farmer Jane*~ · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 106

I agree so much with you on that one! I mean, why would you tell anyone your name or anything!? It's gonna get you in trouble or even worse! Kidnapped. I think we all know what kidnappers do..... Shocked

Lindzey Leo · Joined: 14 Mar 2007 Posts: 1

It is like sooo stupid to put ur details on the net i know my bffl got harrased cause of it

Mystie · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 1315

Yeah, i know the dangers for sure and I am weary.. however i have posted my picture and info about myself. I understand about the piecing together and creating a picture thing but yeah - kidnapping is a bit too far ahead i think. That only happens when you give someone your full address/school/phone number etc. and only if you tell it to the wrong person, but without that it would be very hard to trace a persons whole life.

Jinxx · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 1906

The point being you're fueling interest that someone could persue in pms and other places once you've shared more things. We as moderators can't stop what goes on behind the scenes if someone doesn't show us and if it goes to IM or email there's nothing we can do. So as moderators we have to nip it in the hindend so to speak. We're concerned for all player's safety but we can only do so much upfront to try to avoid it. And people DO NOT need your home address or real name to do any harm.

~*Farmer Jane*~ · Joined: 12 Mar 2007 Posts: 106

I know! I mean... it'll go like this:
Wierd guy: blah blah.... Oh. Cool. You like in Michigan?
Girl who gives out personal nfo: Yup
WG: Cool! ME TOO! What city!?
GWGOPI: (some city)
WG: OMG! ME TOO! What rOad!?
GWGOPI: (some road)
WG: ME TOO! What house? Do we know Each otHer?
GWGOPI: house 12345. you?
WG: (leaVes to go kidnapp you)

Yeah. That would be bad!
(sORy about the caps lock Thing, it Doesn't WOrk) Embarassed

Makayla · Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 42

Mystie · Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 1315

SunflowerLynn · Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 106

Meryck · Joined: 29 Mar 2007 Posts: 939

A person can find you with the tiniest of details you give out, if they are determined enough, or ksilled nough, or have enough money to throw away on it. Not all predators are poor shmucks, rich people prey on others too, th only differance is they have more money to use to try to kepe form getitng caught, it makes them more dangerous.

And it doesn't even take a lot of money relaly, to find someone. Each little, tiny detail that you think is unimportant and you give away, makes it just that much easier to locate you. Given even a 2nd/3rd rate detective agency, and they can most certainly find you with a picture. And if you are savy enough, you don't even need the detective agency. Most schools these days take a ton of pics of the kids in school, and some of those pics make it into the newspapers and tv news etc.

I know it sounds harsh, and extreme, and "it will never happen to me" but it can, and it might. And the folk here aren't trying to be mean, they are trying to look out for the safety of us all.

As a parent, I am very leery of whih games I let my son and little sisters play online. I screen them before I let them play, I play myself, and if there is ANY way at all to communicate with the other players on the game then 99% of the time I don't let them play at all. I have found very few games I will allow them to play without having m right there to supervise them, I learned this the hard way, when some teenager sent my son (he was 8 at the time!) nude pics in his email because he gave it to someone else on the forums of that game. That game, claims to moderate its forums, it claims to immediatly delete any posts that post emails etc, but it didn't delete his. That game is now banned form my household entirely because of this.

We went to a differant virtual pets game at that time, it was much newer, and the owners of the game are one or the other of them lgged on atleast once a day. They also have moderators, and there is ALWAYS a mod on. They schedule the mods shifts in very short segmants, and if for some reaosn there is evera time when a mod is NOT able to be on at all, then the boards are shut down. Quite simply, no mods available, boards close till there is one. They also have a nice feature for parents, if you register to play and you are under a certian age, then you are blocked form communicating with other players in game or on boards, unless your parent sends in a permisison form.

I admit I was leery to allow my son/sister to play thi game when I saw the forums were open to all, but I let them with the explicit rule they do NOT access forums without either myself, or my mother with them to supervise. Not that this is a complete deterant, obviously, since I just woke up to find my son posting on forums.. and that when he is allready in trouble for getting suspended from school.. again.

I know this has turned into a rant, and I appologize for this, it just upsets me rather a lot. Too many people these ays (not just kids either) take their safety for granted, and instead of appreciating it when someone else cares enough to try to protect them, they get upset over it, and complain about their freedoms etc being restricted. Personally, I'd rather have my son hate me because I restricted his freedoms, then to sit around at home worrying myself to death when he comes up missing.

As a parent, and an older sister, I appreciate when mods actively try to keep my kids safe.

Thank you to the mods here, for trying to look out for us.