[GEN]By Which Countrys Law Of Legal Age Of Drinking Do I Have To Follow?

A topic in YJCC made me wonder this, so I PM'ed the mods of the YJCC and of The Senate Floor to find out. I PM'ed all of them to get the different views of the mods of both forums, and it turned ot that there was some major diffenrences.

One mod believed that it was by the US laws since a majority of the users are US based, but why should that affact the rest of the non-IUS users?

I live in Denmark and there the legal age for buying and drinking alkohol is 16, where as in Germany its 18 and in the US it's 21.

Technically it would be illigal for me to tell a story about how my littlebrother, he's 12, bought beer and got drunk that is underage drinking by danish standars, but a story about me getting drunk is okay, but not okay by American law, so in the end it becomes a bit confusing.

There is nothing in the TOS that helps as a pointer, and from the PM's that I got from the different mods there is a differende of oppinion.


It would be great if the mods could stick their heads together and come up with some guidelines on this issue.

 

I've been trying to clarify this somewhat in the revised unwritten rules and informational threads...

 

I say that I've been drinking a lot.

And I'm still 2 years below Britain's Buying age, although not its drinking age at home.

So far no one's told me off about it.

 

excellent question..There is always going to be variation among forums.

As I answered your query, I would certainly allow a straightforward discussion about the effects of alcohol, or the types of alcohol, etc.. in the Senate.

There is a world of difference between a thread that discusses the different types of wine, or the regions were grapes are grown, and a thread that proclaims "YEAH!! LAST NIGHT I GOT SOOO DRUNK"

For me, it is the tone and content of a thread that guides it. As long as it complies with the general "PG" rule, it would be difficult to put an exact age limit on it, because like you said, different areas have different limits.

But I certainly don't know if anyone else shares that view.

 

As mentioned above, we need to define it. But for the boards' sake, I would probably go with the youngest rather than the oldest.

 

I always thought it was American law, because it's an American site on an American server run by Americans.


But then again, underage drinking is just a sub-problem under the 'encouraging drunkness' thing. "I was drunk and it was great" isn't really allowed, no matter how old you are in which country (it falls under the 'family friendly' thing, doesn't it?).

If the question is just when it counts as underage drinking, then I'd say it wouldn't be against the rules to say "I was drunk when I was 17, but I'm from Denmark, where it isn't illegal", because of the TOS line "violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense". That's not talking about anything illegal, after all.

 

where was my PM ?

We have minors accessing the boards on a daily basis, and it's probably best to keep the alcohol discussion to a minimum.

 

I agree with Jedi, I always thought that since it is an American owned site operating in the US that it'd be following American laws. At least thats how I think the majority of websites go do, going by whatever laws their host nation has.

 

I agree with Jedi, I always thought that since it is an American owned site operating in the US that it'd be following American laws.

My view as well. ALcohol discussion is not allowed to "promote underaged drinking."

And if someone's talking in a thread about how all 16 year olds should be able to drink... for many of our readers, that's promoting underaged drinking.

I Did bring up in my PM response that FFs tend to go with their county's own rules. But the JC is obviously more difficult.

 

"violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense".

Just a question from a Comms lurker..

In some country's it's illegal to have a differant religious or political stance that's against the goverments. So, why are we allowed to discuss the failures of Communism and or Islam, when people from Iran, or China, or Cuba might be on here?

*leaves now that the can of worms is open*

 

always thought it was American law, because it's an American site on an American server run by Americans.

I thought the same thing, but some responses by mods in diffenrent threads made me wonder.

Since there are major diffenrence, how about going by the age of 18, since it is the legal age in most countries?


where was my PM ?

No PM for you till you give me back my Ghost Dad DVD.

 

setting aside the discussion of alcohol, I do know that mentioning Ghost Dad results in a permaban.

I do believe that is an international standard.

 

18 may be the majority of countries, but the majority of our users...?

 

Does age really matter, though? Sure, everybody could suddenly pretend they're from Denmark and be drunk with 16, but who cares as long as they don't post (or mod ) while drunk, promote drunkenness itself or specifically tell 20 year old Americans to break a law?

The rules will never tell you "You are not allowed to post about drinking alcohol when you're younger than 21".
What they should say to make the difference (!) clear, is trickier, though. Good luck, dp

 

"You are not allowed to post about drinking alcohol when you're younger than 21".

That certainly depends on where on the boards you're posting and what you're posting about, now doesn't it...

 

Of course it does. That's what I'm saying. That rule covers Americans in JCC, but there is much that it doesn't cover. It would make a terrible rule. It would be stupid. Because Mulacki can post about that one time on his 19th birthday, when he was drunk and yadda yadda... can't he? (within the limits of the clearer parts of alcohol rules on the JC)


while we're at it... what about fiction? Surely Obi-Wan took young Ani to plenty bars during their time before AotC.

 

Mulacki can post about that one time on his 19th birthday, when he was drunk

Hey who told you that??


I was not that drunk....

 

I've always understood the rule to be that we are not allowed to endorse illegal activities. To that end, provided a person is not breaking the law in their own country, it's not so much of an issue. Being a FanForce RSA, obviously we play by slightly different rules than JC mods, but I've always thought that was the crux of it.

 

The following is how I responded to the initial PM:

There's no single specific age, but we ask that users keep in mind that what may be legal in your country/state/region is not the same as everywhere else. For legal matters, we are bound by the laws of the US (California, I believe, because of where the servers are located).

In the Senate, I'd have no problem with you discussing underage drinking and bringing in the differences of age limits, however, you should check with the mods of each forum to see if they would have a problem.

As a rule of thumb for any website, it is bound by the laws relating to the location of the server. Yahoo! Auction's French servers were required to obey French laws relating to Nazi memorabilia (for example), and if a website is practicing copyright infringement, it needs to be sued (usually) in the jurisdiction where the server is.

As for specific discussion, it really is a bit more forum specific. The tone of a discussion in the Senate might allow such comments while a discussion in the JCC would not.

Kimball Kinnison

 

If the question is just when it counts as underage drinking, then I'd say it wouldn't be against the rules to say "I was drunk when I was 17, but I'm from Denmark, where it isn't illegal", because of the TOS line "violates any law, or that encourages conduct constituting a criminal offense". That's not talking about anything illegal, after all.


I agree. It's not promoting getting drunk, and its not talking about an illegal activity.

 

my understanding was that it depended on the individual person.

someone from Spain could talk about drinking at age 18, but someone from the US couldn't until they were 21. unless they were drinking in Puerto Rico, in which case it's okay because it's legal.

 

My understanding of the issue is that since this site is owned by Americans, and run of U.S. servers, that we went by the American drinking age. Also, my understanding of the drinking issues was that we weren't allowed to promote drunkeness, glorify alcohol/drug use, or promote underage drinking. That's just my opinion, though .

 

well, keep in mind that the drinking age isn't a federal law. so the term "the american drinking age" isn't completely accurate, since puerto rico, which is part of the us, has a drinking age of 18.

 

So, it all depends on where and when somebody was drinking to determine whether it's "underage drinking" or not

so, the mods would need to ask in each case 'Is that underage drinking or not?'

I'd say it's easy to find out in each case. It doesn't come up that often anyway, does it? Especially where it may not be clear.
right?


(and why am I so interested in this? )

 

But if at age 19, living in the U.S., I mention that I had a few glasses of wine at dinner tonight, how am I promoting underage drinking? I'm simply making a statement, not encouraging others to follow my example?

And I'm bothered by inconsistencies in this encouraging others to break the law, anyway. I not infrequently see sort of wink, wink, nudge, nudge posts encouraging users to seek out copyrighted material on file sharing networks. Heck, in 3SA, there are entire threads set up for users to request that other users give them copies of material that is almost certainly copyrighted. That seems like encouragement of law-breaking to me -- but I don't know that there's a problem with that.

I can at least understand why we can't say that people under 21 should go out and get drunk, although I don't know that I necessarily agree with that. And I understand why we can't make posts revelling in drunkenness, because that would be too annoying. But I don't understand why simply saying something I did, in violation of a law or no, is a problem. And I don't see why what I should be able to say about my evening's entertainment should change if I took the train up to Toronto.

Since this is a complex situation covering a wide range of national laws, the best approach would seem to me to be a fairly relaxed one. Obviously the board cannot be party to a crime, as it would be in the open exchange of copyrighted material, but it would seem to me that users who post about doing something against the law do so at their own risk and there's no reason to apply different standards concerning the discussion of alcohol, etc. because of the age of the poster.

-Paul