While most of what KI has in the list is understandable, the "Cards for Codes" item has left us at The Spiral Free Press scratching our collective head. While we understand that there may be a flood of reports on this, and that it may be a challenge to wade through and deal with those reports, we would prefer to see KI err to the side of caution on this issue.
A lot of the concerns originate with those who just want to see kids kept from being taken advantage of, and we feel that is a noble and worthy goal. There has been a suggestion by a separate member of Wizard101 Central in a way KI could empower its users to alleviate a lot of this issue, and you can view that thread here. We applaud fellow wizards who try to come up with solutions to issues in the Spiral and share those with everyone to make it a better place for everyone.
Though we feel that just protecting them for that reason is reason enough in itself, we feel there are more security and safety related issues with KI's stance on this particular topic. Our Editor, Ian Silverflame, while not practicing his magical prowess in efforts to save the Spiral, spends his time as a web applications developer on his home world. He deals with the issues of capturing and securing data, from children quite frequently, and how that should be collected, stored, transmitted and protected, to ensure that those who use the applications he builds are kept secure. Because of this security related view, he has contributed the following directly:
"The internet in general, and especially places such as the Spiral, are open season hunting grounds for predators of the most abhorrent kind. To take a stance anywhere short of absolute intolerance on this issue, is akin to posting directional maps for those persons looking to harm children. The 'Cards for Codes' type operations allow anyone with undesirable goals to help weed out the population of the game and find the more susceptible targets.We at The Spiral Free Press would like to see KI change it's position on this issue. While we do agree that there are valuable life lessons to be learned in making bad trades, let that happen over time in trades with friends, not from being lured into what could potentially turn into a very bad situation. We are even willing to pay a bit more for our subscriptions to ensure KI has the staff available to deal with this. At least that's our stance, please let us know your thoughts.
As a parent, I am heavily involved with my daughters game play, and she knows to ask me about anything that makes her uncomfortable, or she doesn't understand. We all have to realize at the same time, there are a lot of children who will be traveling the Spiral totally unattended and without an overlooking parent to help keep them safe.
When it comes to an issue like this, all reasonable efforts must be made to protect those wizards."
Honestly, if KI is going to say it's not a reportable offense, then they need to provide another method for us to point the finger at those scamming members like that. It might not be someone cursing, but in my mind, it's still an offense, and worse, a deception. Like stated above, it's a way for those that want to, to find out who is and isn't gullable enough to fall for the scam, and possibly fall for other scams as well, more life threatening possibly.
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