Gaining

For pretty much as long as I've been around the on-line 'fat' community ('96 or so I think I started), there have been occasional under-18s who have wandered in, all enthusiastic. It is kind of tough to say "Really sorry, but you can't take part in this community until you are 18...we believe you feel what feel, we felt that way at your age too, but please go away for a few more years...."

Ultimately, at that age, any restraints on them is some combination of themselves and their parents, but I suspect that in some cases rebelling against parents goes hand in hand with indulging in the joy of gaining.

I do agree that I'd suggest kids hold off until they are older, and that is the nasty double edged sword of making the communities 18+....can't explain that to them. On the other hand, there are very good reasons for making the communities 18+ (not that kids can't just lie about their age, but that is a whole other issue).

To me at least, it doesn't mean they are 14. I sometimes use numbers in my users names. I am not 24 or 77, but I am neither of those ages. Maybe that was their sports number or their lucky number.

Glad to see everyone has kept it sensible. I agree with what has been said, they are too young for a variety of reasons and just have to tough it out like the rest of us did, sure it may be helpful to discuss it in yahoo groups and stuff, but no pics, no gaining, no nothing until they are an adult and can make an informed decision while realising the effect it will have on every aspect of their lifestyle.

As always, if anyone knows and/or suspects someone on this site to be underage, please "report abuse" or PM a mod. We take this matter very seriously and do everything we can to ensure the protection of the site's users.

I actually think that this might be due to the ubiquitous information technology that's sprung up just in the past decade or so. Not only is information available on sites like this (as it has been for a while), but people are able to access this information faster and more easily than ever before.

Even back when I was 14 or 15, it was only when I had a turn on the family computer at 56k that I could look at sites like Dimensions Feeder.co.uk, Stuffed! Online, etc., and even then I'd only do it if nobody else was around, for fairly obvious reasons.

Now, these sites can be accessed via cell phone, iPhone, Blackberry, which damn near everyone has- including teenagers. And they can access it just about anywhere, and it is difficult for parents to track their activities like they once could. (Anyone who ever cleared their browser history after they were done with the computer knows exactly what I mean.)

This also means that people create a profile or account just about anywhere, showing who they are and what they're interested in.

Since this is accessible so readily, and it's accessible to so many people- and more on topic, so many teens- it should not come as a significant surprise that there is an apparent increase in the number of teens who show interest in this kind of thing, whether it's them discovering it or them being provided with a venue for something that they already knew about themselves.

Heh, I lolled when I saw that...not in a ridiculing way though, but because it made me think of the very homosexual subtext in "Interview with a Vampire".

Though back into the subject, I find all of the panic and stress that most of the American public has toward sex to be exasperating. Because, biologically speaking, most of our purpose is to make babies, for which sex is a prerequisite.

Though, this being said, owing to matters in the legal arena underage membership should be discouraged.

Actually very good vampire fiction as well, lol works as horror, crime and erotica.

Considering the prevalence of lousy food in the past few decades and the very recent trend strongly headed towards "green" and natural foods; and the fact that this is something that predates Obama and the "obesity epidemic"; and the fact that grown-ups are also overweight- I'd say that the comparison you made is not only off the mark, but so far off the mark that you just managed to seriously injure the guy who was standing 200 feet behind you.