While I've gotta give a thumbs up, as I know first hand the scary people you can meet online, however, some of the articles about the event made me go "huh?"
Click for the article
"Many area parents have expressed sincere concern regarding the chat room as it enables children as young as 11 to create a three-dimensional character using different features"
Huh? As young as 11? No. As I've explained to people on the IMVU message boards, people under the age of 13 are not allowed to sign up due to COPPA. Yes I've run into children breaking this rule before and you know what? I report them, every single one.
Parents are also concerned because each character has the ability express different actions such as flirty, bashful or angry.
Those are emotions, dear, not actions. And yes, your avatar can express different emotions. Parents are mad because their children can express emotions online. WTF?
"In reality, it is just one more resource for predators to hide behind a facade as they lure our unsuspecting children.”
You're right. Every chat site on the intarwebs can be used by predators to lure children. That isn't the fault of the chat sites themselves. The internet is a communication tool, if your kids are on it, they're very, very likely to come into contact with someone in cyberspace. Pay attention to your kid's activities online the way you'd pay attention to the kind of people they hang around with.
A part of me is also wondering whether this guy really invited the officer to a chat, or if the officer was under the common newbie misconception that the "Someone is waiting to chat with you" actually means someone is really trying to talk specifically with you, rather than being a general link for Chat Now.
Now, I'm assuming the guy talked about sex even when he knew the (fake) age of the person he was talking to. However, if the detective thought that every person he ended up in chat now with was out for sex with his avatar... stupid n00b.
Anyways, since the story came out, IMVU's been making a couple changes. The first thing I noticed was that people under the age of 15 no longer show up in the find a friend search thingy, that was then changed so that only people over the age of 18 show up. Even for minors. The hells? That means that children can't talk to people their own age, only adults. Also, searching by state has also been removed. Thank gods. I don't know how many times I've been hit on by people who are like "lolz, wer from the same state, lets make sex." Also, I've noticed that lately, all the people I meet in chat now are all over the age of 18.
Of course, kids will always lie. *Sigh*
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