The prevalence of child player earners here on Bitlanders raises some interesting questions about child labor laws. In America, it is against the law for children to work and, I personally believe, should be illegal everywhere, although I know that is not always the case. This is not out of a sense of cultural superiority. Not so long ago, American industry used to send children into coal mines with dynamite. Today, migrant workers, labelled "illegals" take their children into the fields to boost their production yields.
The problem raises many issues. On the one hand, if a child wants to play a computer game, what is the harm in that? If a child plays a computer game, and gets paid for it, isn't that even better?
With anonymous registration, which I do believe... coming as I do from a country whose government tries to intrude just about everywhere... is superior, wouldn't banning children who disclose they are children... or post pictures of themselves which clearly show that... just result in those children pretending to be adults...?
On the other hand, how does a child actually overcome the various verification requirements? Is the child actually dependent on an adult in order to meet the requirements of the game? If so, is the adult guiding the child to save earnings from the game to further the child's educational future, or is the adult taking the money to pay necessities... something which would impose a great moral burden on the child, and would not be acceptable. The poorest child deserves to play real play, and not to learn that the value of play is determined by how much pay the the play generates. The poorest child deserves, and especially deserves, to have earnings safely set aside, and invested, for the tuition of a good school... for books... residential housing.... decent clothing... etc.
It is pretty easy for me to make suggestions that probably nobody looks at, and which would not in any event require effort on my part to implement, but I will state my mind nevertheless. I believe bitlanders should have special accounts for children, subject to their own guidelines. For example, the pressure to buy gems... ridiculous for adults, crosses the line for children into morally repugnant.
What happens when a child earns to pay for household necessities? The family becomes dependent upon the child. The parents start to think it is better for the child to spend more time on the game than the child would even want to spend. They may force the child to work long hours, and not to run in the free air of the great outdoors.
How do you tell when a child playing a computer game, and perhaps earning a few pennies, cross the line from being a wholesome encouragement to being a childhood nightmare? The difficulty of figuring this out does not excuse ignoring the whole issue.
