The issue of age came up today, twice. The first time, an account was created by a 15 year-old and we were reluctantly forced to cancel the account. We knew that the user was 15 because he gave a birthdate that said so. If a user is honest about their age and they're under 18 we have no choice but to remove their account, as our terms of service clearly state that you must be 18 to have an account at Model Insider. Why did we choose 18? Simply because our terms of service are a contract, and we choose to err on the side of caution in that we wish our users to be adults who can contract in their own name. It's really that simple. We appreciate that the user was honest, and invite him back when he is 18. Indeed, in one previous case, we extended an offer of a free upgraded account to a 17 year-old when they return next year after turning 18.

In the second case, we were contacted by an individual who informed us that a particular user who stated that their age was over 18 was, in fact, not over 18. In this case, there was no action we could take. The user states that they are over 18 and an unrelated individual claims otherwise. This is a case of one person's word against another. Even had the accuser volunteered to send "proof," we would have no way to verify this documentation. And if we acted on what turned-out to be falsified documentation, we would be removing an innocent person's account.

Our policy is simple: we require that you give your birthdate and state that you agree to the terms of the site which require you to be over 18. If you do so, we must accept your word. Some other sites set the age bar at 16. Some set it at 13, which, in the United States, is an age triggered by some laws. We choose 18.

Just to be clear, it has nothing to do with content - Model Insider does not allow pornography, so the rules that govern pornography do not apply. It is strictly an arbitrary age we have chosen partially, as I said, because of our terms, and partially because the majority of our members who have expressed a preference have said that they prefer to be on a site populated by adults who can sign a model release without a parent or guardian. That's what our users want, and that's what we give them.

Now the unfortunate part here is that the individual who attempted to convince us to remove the account of the person whom they accuse of being underage did not take our politely declining their request well. He chose to deride the site, said he would tell "his 275,000 member mailing list" that they will have to pay extra to use his studio if they have an account here (as if having an account somehow creates additional liability - a concept with which I'm unfamiliar) and generally threatened our business livelihood. His email has been saved and forwarded to our legal counsel who, I'm certain, will tell us that we should simply ignore it until or unless any harm is done. And, honestly, I doubt any harm will be done. This gentleman is upset, and he's free to be upset if he wants. I'm truly sorry that I couldn't give him what he wants, but our policy on this and almost everything like it is clear:

Model Insider is a place for adults. We act like adults and we treat each other like adults. We don't have a brig. We don't have a huge set of moderators who rule subjectively over a huge set of rules that change on a weekly basis. And we don't abide by drama. If you have an issue with someone, we encourage you to take it up with that someone. It's none of our business. We're here to provide a web site where you can network and enjoy yourself. We're not here to settle disputes between members and we're certainly not here to enforce anyone else's policies. As much as I wish we could please everyone, sometimes that's just not possible.

I do wish, however, that everyone could be adults about it. I suspect I'll keep wishing that.