That may be what is supposed to happen but how closely is that policy monitored or enforced?  Just searching the first three pages (24 pages in total..I believe) of search results for 18-20 year olds on vegweb, 21 people were under the age of 18 when they registered and 8 of the 21 I can clearly remember using the forums and/or chat areas including Courth, Shea, ponycakes!, blithering idiot, AshleyKimball, EggAllergyinMD and xRyanVegx.  Were they stopped from using the public areas?  No.  Did they talk about being in high school or being under age at times?  Yes, some of them did.

What good is having a policy stating you have to be 18 years of age when putting in a birth date is not required?!

Why are you assuming that it's not monitored?  When you register you have verify that you are at least 18 years old.  Kids could lie and select the box, but they could also enter bogus birthdate info.  Back in the hell-that-was-modding-days, Y deleted accounts held by known underaged users.  I assume that hasn't changed.

I just looked up when I registered. It was 5 1/2 months from my 18th birthday. I remember putting 1988 as my birth year, but I changed it in my profile later, I think. It's not that hard.

When I registered, my friends, family, and I didn't talk about sexual things. It just wasn't conversation that was right. Nothing I've ever read containing sexual content has ever offended me nor was it anything I hadn't heard about.

I'm not moderating my conversation because kids have a way to sneak into our forums.  I used to sneak into R-rated movies along with how many other thousands and thousands of kids.  No movie producers took out the sex because they knew that kids could sneak in.  That's where the ratings system (and here, the forum rules) come into play.  To make it clear what lies ahead.

High schoolers are sexual mature, physically speaking.  Sex will arise in their lives, and probably has already.  If someone makes a penis joke in conversation, I really hope they have the knowledge to both understand it and to laugh at it.  

Going along the lines with parenting, if we are worried about how conversation here will shape younger readers' attitudes toward sex--which is more in line with the spirit of PP's original post--frankly, the parents should have instilled them with whatever attitudes they see fit.  I hope that by the time my children (if I have them) reach puberty, they have a basic understanding of the emotional/physical consequences of sex.  If not, I haven't done my job.

I dont think anyone under 18 is still young enough to get freaked out or get "ideas" as some people would say from the thread. Sexual topics arent as rare to come upon in general life and talk than they used to be. There are classes to teach things like this, television, internet, other people, they all, on a daily basis, bring up sexual disscussion in some way or another. There are sexual implications in cartoons on disney now!
I am 17 (18 soon!), and i have never been offended. And like i said, i really dont feel anyone incredibally young is going to be on these boards chatting. Dont get me wrong, it does happen, but is a rarity.
I do feel that it is getting blown out of proportion how much and how bad this sex talk really comes up and is. Its not around every corner of the site, and nothing that i personally feel is harmful to ones well being. The back button is there for a reason, if you dont want to read something, you dont have to; its not getting forced down your throat.

I'm very much for openness and honesty.  I love to talk about sex and farting and all that good nasty stuff without any shame..

I do get annoyed with the sudden remarks/ innuendoes  when I'm engaged in the original topic.  But like it was said, it only happened on maybe 3 threads I encountered.

Do I continue to intentionally do some-said something when a person tells me that it bothers them?... no, and that doesn't change my mind about my freedom of speech or make me think my openness is vulgar...
it just means I choose to respect someone's feelings and save my sexy talk for people who aren't effected by it...?

Its the same that I don't want to be criticized when I say I have sex only with love. (No one's criticized me, just an example)...
... then again, I'm a Libra.

Peace and love!.... and balance.

With all due respect to everyone here, internet safety was not what I meant when I brought up students and children seeing some of the sexual experience/sexual innuendo related here.

I believe I even said that I didn't think it was wrong or bad to talk about sex ever (as in, with my children).

I was thinking more along the lines of: I have spoken openly about my veganism with younger people (including siblings, family members, and students of mine). Its entirely possible that some of them might take what I have to say about veganism to heart and look up vegweb. Were I to say whatever I felt like, all the time, including using sexual innuendo and/or relating my sexual experiences, it is there and available for them to read. That's what I meant. Sometimes we are greater role models than we realize.

OK, this really clarifies things for me.  I guess I do not relate because I do not refer younger people to vegweb ever.  Perhaps, knowing that the forums are for 18+, it would be more prudent for us to refer them to peta2 or something?  

;D  That's the reason why you all get to see my beautiful boy in my avatar instead of my face.

For the record, I sincerely  :)>>> you, pp.

+1 to every gosh-darned thing mdv said.  Amen, sister.

Especially this:

That being said, certain threads do annoy me.  I really, really don't get offended, so I can't say that.  I get tired of the ED threads, I get tired of people whose only posts are to complain or ask for sympathy.  Know what I do?  I ignore them.  The ED issue, the smoking issue, lots of other things also pop up in unrelated threads.  NOT JUST SEX.

amen MD!   and speaking of amen.....I believe in God.....many vegans don't, and talk openly about it on all the threads.  Never once would I tell any of you to stop, or try to push my beliefs on you.  It doesn't offend me, and if it did, I would skim through it.
Jesus!!!!!!  pun intended....

That's a good example.  We are ALL sorts of religious views on here.  And all sorts of sexual views.

I do get annoyed with the sudden remarks/ innuendoes  when I'm engaged in the original topic.  But like it was said, it only happened on maybe 3 threads I encountered.

Do you also get annoyed when the remarks that bring a thread off topic are non-sex related?  Like the brief digression on gypsies in the frozen vegetable thread?
~~~~~

Haha, no.  I really don't ever care much what people say.  I read it and go, whether I have more knowledge or not... and only get annoyed when I'm left in suspence.  Sometimes its fun!  It depends on the day.

I was just trying to see it from someone else's POV?  I don't know, I'm dumb a lot.

----

I was raised in a very blah family... my siblings have different views on sex than each other... so, I don't know how's what.... but that has nothing to do with the topic. rawr.