(And this is relevant to this blog, because Discord is frequently used by gamers to text and voice chat.)

…that you come up with some form of fake ID so that you can use it, because your first account got banned when you were reported to Discord administrators for being under the age that you have to be (thirteen years of age or older) to use the chat program, as per COPPA rules. Remember that whole story that I’ve mentioned from time to time? Well, come to find out that the person that I, and one other person, had actually reported to Discord had actually been banned. He had been given fourteen days to prove to Discord that we weren’t lying when we reported him for being twelve years old, and he couldn’t, because… wait for it, he was twelve years old, under the age of thirteen, which you have to be over to legally use Discord because Discord adheres to COPPA. So he gets himself some fake ID, which is going to make reporting him a lot more difficult, and makes himself another account, and comes right back. I’m not even sure if reporting him again is going to be worth it since his birthday is coming up in several months unless he makes an absolute prat out of himself in the chat, because man, y’all, this kid is actually that determined. And I don’t know whether to be impressed, frightened, or both. Were any of us this way when we were pre-teens?

But was the Internet this way when we were this old? No, it wasn’t. Point made. Point absolutely made.

The impression that I get is that this kid’s parents just don’t care what he’s doing online because they seem to… I don’t know, take him at his word that everything he’s doing is okay, no, it’s fine, really. And this makes me want to watch everything that my own kids do online all the more, even though with both of them being autistic, I mean, I do that even more already than I would if both of them were neurotypical, so there’s that…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Craig_Sorger

Warning if you read that article: it deals with… some really intense stuff having to do with a child.

Understatement.

Ever since I found out that one of the participants in that murder has been profiting off of donations being an “anti-abortion abolitionist”, or whatever he calls himself, shouting and singing in front of healthcare facilities that perform them, I could not contain myself, and I began commenting on his Facebook wall espousing my repeated sentiments on the matter that a literal convicted child murderer of all things who “found God” (must look really good to the parole board, eh?) would now suddenly be advocating for “pro-life” measures…

Once Jake saw that he and his ilk could not successfully “convert” me, he blocked me. It was hilarious.

It honestly seems like Discord administrators themselves (and I’m talking the global ones here) don’t seem to care about the rules that they have, because when I reported someone for being under the age that you are supposed to be to legally use the chat service, they didn’t actually do anything about it when I gave them concrete proof that the user was beneath the age of thirteen. This user decided to come back to the channel that I participate in on Discord and begin chatting again, which, as of the time that I saw him on it, effectively killed the entire conversation at the time that he attempted to participate. Even though this rule is in place due to COPPA, why even bother having the rule that you have to be thirteen years of age or older to use Discord if you’re not actually going to enforce the rule that… well, you have to be thirteen years of age or older to use Discord? It makes no sense. Make it make sense, Discord. Really now. The rule is fairly useless.

I was going to write about something else here, but then I wanted to bring this up before I actually forgot to.

Normally, it’s supposed to be a bannable offense when a user too young attempts to use Discord to chat.