Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Printable Version
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Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Moonshroom - 09-15-2022
I saw this question being asked around the other day and I think that it has a lot of merit to be discussed.
The internet I joined back then was an entirely different beast compared with what we see today when we go online, but I think that that's precisely what makes it an interesting point of comparison.
There were a couple of social media sites (most notably: MySpace and Fotolog) but not much more and the majority of the talking was being done through a variety of forums and on the deep-end of chat services, like obscure IRC channels (most of which have survived to this day, actually) and even activity sites such as Yahoo! Games, which promptly became warning tales of their own for reasons that we should soon explore.
Was I too young to be let loose on such a landscape? Legally no, for at 13 years of age I had just crossed the legal age of registration for most sites, but I definitely wouldn't have allowed myself to be online if I knew what awaited on the other side.
Those activity sites were filled to the brim with dubious characters who would often talk about shady things back in the open (and right to the point where you started wondering what the hell were the moderators doing and even if there WERE moderators at all). It became an almost fascination of mine to join these sites (especially the "Rainy Sunday" domino game lobby) very late at night on weekends and seeing the kinds of things that would happen right there on the main screen. Incredibly weird things like passive-aggresive flirting, personal attacks amongst newcomers and even a "hierarchical pecking order" in which a selected few would direct the masses towards someone they found unpleasant until they had been successfully kicked out were common occurrences on those parts of the internet. I honestly ended up spending more time reading the chat than playing the intended rounds of pool and domino. It was THAT interesting.
... But the experiment was ended when one of the shady characters somehow found my e-mail address and began harassing my contacts. Thankfully, they were blocked immediately and the thing was sorted out quickly, but that was all the "wake-up call" I needed.
Taking the above into consideration (and the fact that forums were a lot more hostile back then) I really do think that I was way too young to be allowed online at the time, despite the fact that I needed to have an active connection to do my schoolwork.
What about you?
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Pyrite - 09-15-2022
Oh, I definitely was. Actually, I seem to recall that I had to wait until I turned 13 to actually register onto TCH's predecessor.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Jarkko - 09-15-2022
I was 14~15 years old, so not really.
But it was also school, and the internet wasn't overly widespread cette époque-là. 
My HS didn't even have full access to the internet until I was in Grade 9 (I started in Grade 8 as it was an 8-12 school). And what we surfed was monitored relatively closely.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Moonshroom - 09-15-2022
(09-15-2022, 11:23 PM)Jarkko Wrote: I was 14~15 years old, so not really.
Yeah, I imagine that having someone watching over your surfing made it all safer.
Our school did have access to the internet since Grade 5 (age 10), but we had to ask permisson to use it and it was very rarely granted. We often had to sneak into the lab and that wasn't the brightest idea.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Shiny Star - 09-15-2022
I would say yes. I got Facebook when I just turned 12 and was on forums at age 9 briefly then age 12 again. It honestly depends on which websites you go on but I think it's becoming more and more common for younger people to access the internet than it was. I'm sure it's easier now with younger people getting smart phones and the rise of social media.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Moonshroom - 09-15-2022
(09-15-2022, 11:17 PM)Pyrite Wrote: Oh, I definitely was. Actually, I seem to recall that I had to wait until I turned 13 to actually register onto TCH's predecessor.
HAHA! At least you observed the rules. We had a kid who was nine when he joined and... yeah, he did everything in his power to be banned, yet never was (despite constant pleas by other members due to both him being very obviously not suited to be on the forums and the fact that that was illegal).
Quote:I would say yes. I got Facebook when I just turned 12 and was on forums at age 9 briefly then age 12 again. It honestly depends on which websites you go on but I think it's becoming more and more common for younger people to access the internet than it was. I'm sure it's easier now with younger people getting smart phones and the rise of social media..
True that.
The other day I saw a girl half my size with a smartphone twice the size of her hand. I just don't think that's a pretty good idea on her parent's side, especially since she was also wearing a school uniform... might as well have painted a target on her back.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Kyng - 09-16-2022
Not really... I was 9 years old when I logged onto the internet for the first time, but I just stuck to child-friendly sites for the first few years. I was very much sheltered from the dark corners of the internet
. Admittedly, I did encounter a few 'adult' things when I was too young for them (about 12-14)... but I didn't actively seek them out. Either I'd been tricked into downloading them, or they'd been posted by trolls on the forums I used (and they were subsequently removed by the moderators). But those occasions were, thankfully, quite rare.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - MamaFrankie - 09-16-2022
Given the age I am, I definitely wasn't too young!
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - Dazzal - 09-16-2022
No, not too young. It was back in the 90s when I first got on the internet.
RE: Were you too young to be online back when you first accessed the internet? - SpookyZalost - 09-19-2022
We had aol back then. There was a special filtered version called kids online or KOL. As well as another one called Teens Online or TOL when I turned 13.
Beyond that though I was blissfully ignorant until I got my first proper PC for my 14th birthday. We had dsl then and I mostly hung around fansites and modding communities like simtropolis and mod the sims.
At school it was government websites and physical Library books.