
Pool's Closed
Investors are pulling out of Finnish social networking firm Sulake and its teen-aimed website Habbo Hotel after revelations that Habbo was hosting illicit content. Private equity firm 3i announced today that it had left Sulake's board and was ditching its 16 per cent stake in Habbo Hotel, a social gaming network and online …
Indeed you are correct in that a lone bracket is a parenthesis. But, I put it to you, how can one close a single parenthesis?
If you had opined that the poster was "missing a parenthesis," then I would certainly have been the mistaken party in this debate, yet your claim that "you have forgotten to close your parenthesis" suggests you are talking about the twin-brackets which make up a singular unit of parentheses.
I ask you one more time, sir, for my overcoat.
An inspired argument, sir. However, would a parentheses not be required contain both an opening parenthesis and a subsequent closing one?
I therefore maintain that the poster has neglected to close his (opening) parenthesis.
On a side note you may be able to answer a grammar-Nazi question that has vexed me for some time.
Do you happen to know the plural of chaos? It is the only noun for which I cannot find a plural
Remember that it is for over-13s (there is a US federal law which uses that age limit), and international. Neither US nor UK thinking on age limits for sex are universal.
I'm one of those rare people who can remember being a teenager. No, we were not innocent. Perhaps more relevant, we were prone to lies and boasts about such things. It's as predictable as the reactions of social workers and politicians.
Children are not safe around children. No surprises there.
I have had to say this to so many of my friends with children recently, it's getting silly. I've said it on here before as well, but here it is again:
THE INTERNET IS NOT A PLAYGROUND FOR CHILDREN. IT IS NOT A SAFE PLACE TO LET YOUR CHILDREN EXPLORE ON THEIR OWN. IT IS NOT YOUR BABYSITTER. SUPERVISE YOUR OFFSPRING WHENEVER THEY USE AN INTERNET CONNECTED DEVICE.
That all said, the idea of sites for kids is nice, but as always with these things, it's ruined by arseholes.
"I believe in explain and trust rather than tether and oppress."
Whilst I agree with the sentiment, it's not my own children I don't trust. However, even the most sensible and level-headed of people (yes, I'm including adults here as well) can be coerced in to doing something silly and even potentially dangerous.
"But you should be able to trust your children to tell you when something is not quite right. This way they will turn into adults who won't be coerced into doing something silly."
Yes, just like we expect sensible adults to report to their bank / police when they have their personal information stolen by scammers, or hand it over voluntarily to phishers. Turns out they don't always do that. Who knew?
Oh yeah, everybody.
and your point is what exactly? It would appear this is a moderated site targeted at children between the ages of 13 - 18, surely the moderators should have stopped much of the 'grooming' activity. Assuming the reports on the news are correct the investors are quite sensibly removing their investment as this site appears to be a major conduit for grooming of minors.
Hardly gonna market themselves as not safe, but again as a parent my definition of safe and there's differ very widely I should imagine. It still comes down to parents, my daughters is old enough for a faceb account according to their terms and conditions, she isn't old enough for one by mine and when she does get one until she is 16 she wont be using it unsupervised.
It does seem a bit dodgy really pulling out when the problem has been found and effectively losing your voice on the board.
Question is which would a company prefer being remembered for pulling out and washing their hands of a scandal or staying on board and getting to grips with it.
well it just could be they invested because company honchos & servers knew the backstory & supported the whole enchilada -- except when it hit the paper plate (media).
as an aside, don't think the pedo coach Sandusky at Penn State is the whole enchilada either...just part of the rotting ingredients.
I used Habbo years ago, sounds like nothings changed.
The thing is though, they posed as a 13 year old girl, right? Now I know everyone wants to view the world through rose tinted glasses, but I can’t imagine any other responses from a 13 year old boy that wouldn’t be “sexual and vulgar”. What do they expect from putting a bunch of teenagers together?
Sure, there’s paedophiles. There’s paedophiles everywhere on the internet. But kids are told time and time again about the whole talking to strangers business and meeting people off the internet. Does it stop them? No. Did it stop them kids getting killed from meeting people they met on Facebook? No.
I mean, shit, maybe it’s not necessarily a problem with the service and its moderation. From what I remember, the reporting system on Habbo was actually one of the best I’ve seen (Sulake didn’t take kindly to the “scripting” scene) – easy for kids to use and every “Call for Help” (as they call it) was responded to within minutes. Clear instructions provided for what to do if someone engaged in this behaviour with you.
If kids aren’t using the tools given to them, or acting on the knowledge drilled into them in school, then maybe that’s a failure that should be pointed somewhere else.
Kinda feel bad for Sulake. Habbo was probably been hemorrhaging users for a while. This’ll probably be one of the final nails in the coffin.
"Private equity firm 3i announced today that it had left Sulake's board and was ditching its 16 per cent stake in Habbo Hotel, stating that they felt that the only responsible action to take when discovering 13 year old kids surrounded by peadophiles was to run away as fast as they could."
There, fixed that for their press department.
There comes a time in your life when you can no longer "pose" as 13. You have learned to much, and much of your innocence is gone. You can enter your age on your profile as 13, but that is about as far as it goes, you will react at your actual age level. You might be able to pull it off for a while, but if anyone talks to you for any length of time, your cover will be blown.
They should just shut down and put in a link to SecondLife. At least in SL everyone pretends to be 25 and says everyone is a pervert, except them, while standing naked covered in molasses and holding a chicken....
Do you tell 'grooming' by a raging hormones 13 year old pretending to be say 15 from a real paedo sweating at home doing the same thing? Did they actually cam with them.
I've lurked in many a chat room on many a service and know of no good way to even take a wild ass guess on the age of my fellow denizens even after seeing them chat for weeks or months.
People! The site claims to be moderated. Not monitored. That means they are not in a position to find the issues unless they hear about them, namely by people actually using the reporting mechanisms.
What is reported as happening is sick, but going off as if the Hotel had claimed it had people listening in on every single conversation and watching every single room is a bit ... dumb.
We are told that, “...There isn’t a town, village or hamlet in which children are not being sexually exploited.”
[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9327534/Child-abuse-taking-place-in-every-town-village-and-hamlet-in-England.html]
This is not responded to at all by the authorities, except to tell us that the new "internet super-snoop law" will save us.
Is not it curious that news about Habbo is released at the same time as a plethora of articles appear in the press on the topic of paedophiles? At the same time as this new law is being promulgated, no less!
Will investors pull out of Facebook as well, given that children have been groomed - or worse - via that site?
<rant> It is the responsibility of parents to safeguard their children from unwanted attention, whether it is on the Internet, at the local kebab shop, or within our "lovely leafy rural areas." The nanny state has arisen and prospered, in part, due to the failure of many parents in accepting this responsibility. </rant>