TripSit 18+ Rule

As of today, 2016-04-11, TripSit has entered the announcment period before implimenting a new policy on 2016-05-11 that restricts access to TripSit IRC channels (besides #tripsit and #sanctuary) for people under the age of 18.

Why?

People under the age of 18 are still very much in development, and we believe that while they should be able to directly seek support from TripSit, it is not wise for them to be influenced by the wider drug-related community. While we will keep #tripsit open to anyone requiring assistance, so long as they meet our 13+ rule as required by the COPA act, the rest of the community is a place we believe children and young teenagers should not be exposed to. Furthermore, in order to encourage a productive drug-tolerant community, we must allow our members to have the confidence that what they say will not be influencing people who have not had the same education and experience as they have.

See the announcement for more information

What will change?

Starting 2016-04-11, TripSit entered the announcment period, where the changes we plan to make are made public and available for comments to improve, but the policy is not yet active. The following changes have been made:

• When accessing the chat.tripsit.me page, a banner will show with a link the the announcement.
• An extra note on the http://chat.tripsit.me/ page will note that members will have to be 18+ to use social channels.
• Our network terms of service will be updated.
• A new TC room has been created solely for the purpose of age verification, explained below.

After the announcement period is over on 2016-04-11, any user found under the limit going forward will be removed. This rule will not apply retroactively; we will not remove members under the age of 18 until there is evidence that they are currently under 18 after 2016-05-11. Members will be banned for admitting themselves that they are not over the age limit. Even if in jest, we will accept an admission of this fact as proof, and remove the user. Due to the amount of effort involved in getting unbanned for this reason, community members should be avoid joking about being underage.

What does it effect?

For ease of moderation and to eliminate confusion, we will enforce this rule everywhere on the network, except for #tripsit and #sanctuary, but including any official cam rooms as well, such as any of our TinyChat or Appear.in rooms. It will be included in our terms of service on the network level.

How can a user get unbanned when banned for this reason?

A user can get unbanned when they turn 18, using the date they were banned as their birthday. For example: User1 said on January 1st 2016 that they were 16 years old. User1 would not be unbanned until January 1st 2018, or two years after the day they admitted their age. This may seem unfair if the user legitimately has their 18th birthday in the next few months, but is the only way for us to ensure that they have passed the required amount of time to be 18 without requiring some kind of personal information. If users would rather supply personal information than wait out the ban they may choose the verification path.

How can someone prove they're 18+?

Rather than waiting a full year since the time they admitted their age, members will have the option of undergoing a completely optional verification done by our team. This is entirely voluntary, and completely understandable if people refuse to take this option, but it is available if they want to get unbanned faster than the above option. If the below process is altered in any way, the appealee is encouraged to stop the process and contact an admin.

The process of verification is:

1. Appealee accesses the IRC network and enter the #tripsit.me room.
2. Moderator says hello, and unfreezes the banned nickname account.
3. Appealee logs into the nickserv account, to verify that the person behind the nickname is the one we're talking to.
4. Both the appealee and the moderator meet in the TinyChat room to verify that the user on IRC is a real person, and what their face looks like.
5. Appealee then shows government issued ID to the staff member to verify that the person who is on camera matches the ID, and that the ID shows that they're over 18. Picture evidence will not be accepted, due to the ability to modify photographs, only a live-cam will suffice, only government ID's will be accepted, and it must show their age and picture on the ID.
6. Moderator member thanks them, closes chat, and then makes a note on the user's nickserv account that they have undergone the verification.

Staff members are /never/ to take screen shots or any other record of this conversation. If the appealee feels that the staff member handled the process inapropriately in any way, they are welcome to message an admin.

Our goal is /only/ verification, we will not retain any personal data.