I'm a bit late coming into this conversation since I've been gone for a few weeks, but I wanted to add my two cents here if it's not too late.

I've moderated very active message boards at several online sites on a variety of topics for over 9 years now, and my experience from that has shown:

1. There's always going to be the occasional "bad apple" that lies about their age, their gender, or enjoys making up stories about themselves for sympathy or shock value.

2. There are spammers and trolls with lots of time on their hands who love to stir up trouble on message boards just "for the heck of it."

3. On a free message board, it's impossible to verify anyone's true age.

4. Age restrictions placed on forums pretty much have to rely on the honesty of the posters. However, lawyers for sites I've moderated have usually advised us that by posting a disclaimer about age restrictions or an announcement about a forum being "adult only" gives some degree of protection to the site administrators in the event of any type of legal problem occuring with minors.

Having said this, I believe "if something ain't broke, don't fix it." Instead of thinking of ways for all posters on CL to "prove" their age, I think the solution should simply concentrate on the actual problem. So, if there's a problem with one or two posters, they (including their IP address) should simply be banned from the site after an appropriate warning.

I also believe a separate "Adults only" forum on CL would be appropriate to discuss whatever topics adults want to discuss. Of course, this would be on the honor system, with no true way to verify or check if minors are reading or posting. But, again, a disclaimer or announcement of this being an "adult only" forum only open to those over a certain age should protect CL from most legal situations that could arise.

I got in late on this one too. First, I would like to congratulate and thank everyone. Why? Because we all care so much about each other. It’s not hard to tell that when a few of us are offended, it reaches much further than those few people, because we’re all here for each other and it thusly affects the community. I really appreciate what everyone’s contributed; this makes me feel like I’m a member of a good crowd, a crowd with concerned and helpful individuals who don’t like to see their friends at any disadvantage. I’d also like to thank Artemis for including me in one of her earlier posts; that’s just the type of friendly behavior I’m talking about! Stick up for one another and deal with the problems at hand with integrity. I’m quite proud of us.

Honestly, I have very few worries about how things like age restriction will work, because from the thoughts and actions of the concerned members here, I trust in that productive attitude to bring us closer together instead of letting petty issues tear us apart.

The honor system, as far as being in places where one shouldn’t be, is a potentially flawed system, but that shouldn’t stop those who are able to abide by its principles. After all, karma is not a limited power and will affect things appropriately. I think that if anyone here, particularly the minors in question, are serious about their studies and inquiries, then they will have the respect and gumption to handle themselves accordingly. As I’ve made perfectly clear, almost all of us have this level of courtesy, but for those behaviorally challenged, we can only continue to set good examples and enforce fair warnings that we stand together and do not tolerate disrespect.