Scammers, Cops, and Kids: Don't Talk to Minors
Imagine this situation: Someone signs into the chat rooms, setting their date of birth such that they seem to be of legal age as far as we can tell. They get users to message them on kik, where they reveal that they are very underage. Uh oh! What do you do?
In this situation, you must immediately cease contact with that person and report them. We'll remove the user account in question. We may request screenshots.
If you do not immediately cease contact with that person, be aware that you are legally responsible for your conduct. If you had no reason to suspect that you were talking to a minor before, then you were safe up to that point. If you continue after they reveal that they are a minor (even if they aren't really a minor, if they say they are, then you must act as if they are), you demonstrate that you are willingly engaging in sexual activity with a minor.
The person identifying themselves as a minor in this case may be a scammer (they may, at the same time, also be a minor!) intending to blackmail you by threatening to tell your friends and family or law enforcement that you are engaging in illegal activity with minors. They may ask for money to maintain their silence. They may be a cop trying to get you to commit a crime. In neither case is this currently legally considered entrapment, and such a defense cannot protect you if the fact that you knowingly engaged with someone you believed to be a minor reaches law enforcement.
If they really are a minor, though, consider that, of the two of you, you are the adult. You are responsible for not taking advantage of minors. It is your responsibility to report their presence so that we can clear them off the site. Don't come crying to us if you mess up. We can't and won't protect you from the legal or financial consequences of your actions.
If you encounter someone representing themselves as a minor:
- Immediately cease contact.
- Report their user account to us.
- Include where/how you discovered that they were underage.
- If the offense took place off-site, we may require supporting evidence in order to take action.
- Block them on LocalSexting and any other services (kik, skype) where they have contacted you.
Note: Because we operate within the United States, it is the age of majority, according to US law, that we must defer to. A minor is any person under the age of 18.