a fool

controversial opinion but i don't think self-selected age bracketing/gating in online spaces is a terrible thing (or self-selected age verification, even if its easy to lie on, because it at least presents a barrier where someone not in the age of majority might think twice about entering it because maybe its too scary for me as i am an baby) but i say this mostly because i basically adults who go out of their way to befriend children online are most often doing so because adult relationships are too challenging for them and they want relationships with people they can easily manipulate and use as a punching bag that cant fight back (even if the adults themselves are not consciously aware of this motivation lmao im certain they believe theyre actually doing something positive to these kids because people can rationalize anything lol) and it really doesnt help that kids who are vulnerable to these exploitative relationship dynamics are ones who have been rejected by their peers in real life and respond very well to adults telling them that the reason is because theyre too mature and badass and special for those gormless idiot 9th graders that are making their life a living hell lmao. yeah, it might be flattering to a kids ego, but ultimately that flattery is a means to an end, and even if there's no explicitly sexual interest from the adult, it can still fuck with a kids head to find themself in a relationship with an emotionally unstable and deeply immature adult that holds them responsible for their happiness, manipulates them all the time, and who gets angry at them for not being capable of providing the complex emotional support that adults typically need and for being ignorant in the way that people who haven't been alive for a very long time are.