The biggest bug within VrC is this strange thing of trying to figure out how to appropriately combat with age differences. Yes, each player should take accountability but nothing is more of a buzz kill to the game when you and your buddies all adult age are enjoying a night with a couple shots only for someone to join who shouldn’t be there and or wondering if other people within an adult setting are adult. Yes you can ask but people lie. At this point there should be accountability put on the person who isn’t being honest about their age. So, food for thought for you developers. Make it so when making an account one of the questions asks for your age. Which triggers if someone is eligible for AP. Which you have to buy. Buying AP, Adult Privileges would mean. that person can enter adult themed worlds and see adult themed avatars. This is a two layer system that can help with all this. Within signing up and buying AP, you guys could have a serious warning about the consequences of not being honest about ones age. And putting in a REAL report system in place for if someone joins an adult themed lobby if they admit to not being an adult or something like that where someone within VrC staff can actively look into and do something about it. 1. make it so people have to declare their age within signing up and doing something with already existing accounts to fall into that via picking an option when logging in like we do when we had to agree to new terms of service, its either above or below 18. Then much like VrC plus, have ANOTHER thing ontop of VrC plus, where people can also get VrC AP. All agree to terms etc. I just hope something like this can be put into place int he future because yes there are people of all places using the game and the majority of users just want to hang out with friends in a safe environment. And being able to kick it at our favorite adult themed even without worry would be nice. Or at lease less worry that our potty mouths would cause issues for someone who shouldn’t be there in the first place. No one wants to have to ask many times how old people are while drinking with friends. Let’s get real. More so if you are trying to be a creator and are aware of propaganda content creators who like to take things out of context.
I like the outside the box thinking here, and protecting spaces both for-kids and from-kids is important. What ways can we think about this problem using technology or system design that you might use that wouldn’t utilize a monetary solution? I don’t like the idea of further gentrifying adult spaces as a solution.
Yes, no one wants to spend money to gain access to things but if you sit back and let it sink in, it actually benefits both the average everyday users and that of the development/staff team. Over all it is something that is very good. It just makes complete sense to have the “serious adult” themed worlds that include exotic situations and that of consumption and partying to have this in place to protect those who are in those worlds. Unless the development team wanted to re-code some things within signing up for the game and that of current users to go through a age verification system that makes it so you couldn’t see/hear anyone below 18 if you are already that age or above. And then the restriction would be lifted once they reached that etc. It would be a rough update tbh if they went that rout and just put it in an update… No matter what you can’t avoid the bad apples who ruin things for the rest of us but we can put in place things to help protect people in all demographics. Sitting back and thinking about it, for the adults who want to go to actual adult themed events without worry, it would be nice to have a “VrC AP” = “VrChat Adult Privileges” badge that can be a one time purchase to enter exotic places. Not to be confused with having to do that for each and every club/etc, it is legit through the platform it’s self. Legit just like VrC plus but a one time purchase instead of a monthly. The youngsters aren’t reading signs etc and just click and enter within these worlds. It is actually a serious issue to the point clubs have started having to enforce bouncers at the doors. But even that isn’t enough. Some people just sound older. But if they can’t even see the world in their search tab… It doesn’t exist to them. Only the adults who have been verified and have VrC AP. I believe in the development team and want the best for them and to see things always evolving into bigger/better and staying ahead of things. And anyone who understands this wouldn’t have a problem paying a one time things to get VrC AP to be able to enter actual exotic adult themed (clubs/bars/dancing) worlds in vrc. This doesn’t completely separate the community. It just makes it so adults can be adults and kids wont run into a world by mistake and or out of curiosity. Why would we want those under 18 to even be able to see those worlds within their search to begin with? A one time 10 to 20 $ fee for it is nothing if it means those who want nothing to do with the younger demographic is possible. I’m already holding out my card XD
I understand the concerns about underage people in VRChat but it would likely be advisable to format your posts in a more coherent way to better articulate your message to a wider audience.
To be honest, a one time fee isn’t really good to prevent underage users from entering public worlds if they can already afford VRC+ for multiple months.
It would be an interesting approach but it’s not a verification system. You’ll still have the same issues just with an overall smaller amount of users since not everyone wants to pay a fee after paying for their stuffs for the club.
Only way I can see a full proof system working is with actual age verification with a photo id and worlds can mark themselves as mature audiences only (after the creator verifies themselves too). The issue with this is mainly privacy and trust in the community or VRChat the company to take care or remove your data after it is used to verify your age. Some users may not want to do this and like the open nature of other clubs.
Quite a few clubs already do this tho this is entirely another situation of stuff when a community is managing it. Online public spaces are hard to manage :(
Even this isn’t ideal because if the data isn’t properly handled there could be massive fines as seen with Roblox getting sued for the methods they were using for ID verification for voice chat and such.
If there were a perfect way to accurately verify people’s age, every platform would be using it already.
Everyone is a lawyer…
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/age-of-consent-by-country