SimGirl

Guest Writer

Hello, people. Once again, here is SimGirl with another article. First off, I would like to thank GGBabe for her response to my other article. Secondly, I would like to thank the Times Editor. I must say one thing to what the Editor wrote -- he said, "You can't go and say a blue streak of curses to your teacher" -- well, to tell you the truth, in fact, yes, I can. You have to understand, I don't take any type of tolerance from my teachers. If my teacher pushes me, I will stand up for myself. Also, I have before and I was proud of it. (Note to kids don't think you can go and tell off your teacher like I did -- it's true, there are consequences!) (Editor's Note: Actually, that was my point, that there are consequences. I wasn't saying you were physically incapable of foul language! ;-)

One more thing, you said if we can say suck, dumb, jerk on Whyville we are committing crimes?!! I don't think that we'll be breaking the law if we say suck, dumb, or jerk, etc. on Whyville. (Editor's Note: In fact, you can say "dumb" and "jerk" on Whyville. You can't say "suck." The word is on our filter list because of how it can be used in disgusting and inappropriate ways.) All GGBabe and I are asking for is a little bit of independence. We are not asking to be allowed to curse on Whyville, we just want our own chat privileges. All I am saying is that I don't think that we are going to be homicidal or break the law by being allowed to say "suck, dumb or jerk". I think some people have to face the fact that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows. If a parent doesn't want their kid seeing some rude things well, be responsible and don't let them on. Have internet security, other programs.

I do realize that the internet chat laws in the U.S. may be different than the ones in Canada, because to my knowledge we don't have any!! Really, I don't know any kid under the age of 12 that goes onto a chat line. My saying is, if you don't like what you are seeing or hearing, DON'T LOOK AT, DON'T SEE IT, AND DON'T LISTEN TO IT!!! If you are easily offended by statements that people make, then you don't belong in a chat room. If you really have to go on a chat line and you don't like what people are saying, that's why there is a magic tool called VAPORIZE!!! or how about SILENCE!!! Although we do have the 911 REPORT tool, I don't really like to use it. I don't believe that one should get muted or lose chat privileges for saying some small meaningless word.

There is a second side to this: one good reason that we do have a protective chat system is for downright crude language. If you're speaking that bad, well, you don't belong here. Then I use the 911 REPORT tool.

Maybe, if some people ever took the time to just stop and look around you. Look at what is going on in your environment; everyone is changing for good or for worse. We have to understand that there are going to be more people in life that are going to be doing some crazy things. All you have to do is tune out and ignore them or use one of our 3 magic tools in Whyville. All we are asking for is to let us have our freedom of speech. If some little 2 foot kid is upset by what I'm saying, well, tough beans! I'm going to say whatever I like and if you don't like it, go somewhere else!

This is SimGirl signing out!

Note from City Hall: We certainly respect your opinion, SimGirl. In a perfect world, just having our three safety tools should be enough, and no filter at all would be necessary. We would empower all citizens to decide for themselves whom and what they want to hear or not want to hear. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world. Even with all the things we do, we still get complaints from parents, teachers, even potential sponsors saying that they are worried about the chat in Whyville. In many people's opinions, we should have an adult monitor sitting in every room making sure that every chat phrase is completely clean before it shows up on the screen.

Not only would that be impossible for us to do because of practical reasons, we also think that a system like that would completely stifle the creative atmosphere of Whyville. But, we also can't afford to totally ignore these concerns either, as it would be possible for a group of sufficiently upset grown-ups to shut down our site permanently. So, the system we have is the compromise. And here at City Hall we firmly believe that it's a compromise worth taking for the survival of our town