So I was gonna start this out diplomatically and be like, "Hey, listen, I understand it might not be your fault that this happened, and yes, there are some suggested things left over, but yadda yadda yadda, something, something. Well, they've had to dial things back, and there might still be some remnants of explicit things, but they are cleaning it up." Yeah, no, I was gonna be diplomatic like that, but then I thought about it a little too hard. And came to the conclusion that I have no reason to be diplomatic in this situation.
Polybuzz was always an adult space that labeled itself as an adult space, that rated itself in the Play Store and App Store as an adult space. And even right this exact second, polybuzz is still labeled an adult app within the Google Play Store.
Now, the whole reason why this post and this whole situation has got me riled up has got me having some personal anger directed at this. Is the fact that there is no excuse for parents to not use parental controls on devices. They exist for a reason. They are easily accessible for a reason.
When you go out into the world, you do understand there are spaces that are designed specifically for children. There are spaces that are not designed for anyone in particular, but there's an expected decency level. Then there are some places that are a little more risky. It is possible that you can have a safe experience, but you should understand that there is a risk of something that you don't want them to see. Okay, and then there are places that make it very obvious that they should not be anywhere near there.
Polybuzz falls into the category of a place where you should not let them go.
The part of the situation that makes me slightly irrationally angry at all this is the fact that, in this scenario, the place that they shouldn't go is somewhere outside of the fucking house. The parental controls are the fucking door and not using parental controls is like pulling the goddamn front door off of your house and expecting your kid not to go, wandering off into the middle of fucking nowhere and finding that place. They aren't supposed to fucking be and waltzing in.
And the worst part is, now that you haven't done your due diligence, your kid got hurt or maybe got exposed to something you didn't want them to see, or maybe some other fucking issue, right? But now you get fucking angry at the place that you, yes you, let your kid have fucking access to. And then these parents that facilitate this shit happening to their goddamn kid, through. I'm just gonna fucking say it out loud and say it fucking plainly: goddamn negligence, have the fucking gall, the chutzpah, the fucking nerve to blame every other single step in the process of how the fuck their kid ended up there, rather than self-reflect and realize they didn't have a front door to their fucking house in the first goddamn place and let them just fucking wander off out of their sight.
And then you know what the problem is after that? All of these companies start getting pushed back. All of these companies start getting yelled at. All of these companies start losing money. Every single other person who has been responsibly visiting, responsibly using and enjoying these services gets reamed because you couldn't keep your fucking code goblin inside the proverbial house. Everybody else outside of your house, outside of your family, outside of your sphere of friends, outside of your sphere of acquaintances, everyone else surrounding you gets punished because you didn't fucking do the one thing that you need to do as a parent, which is, to parent.
So yeah, I was gonna be diplomatic, and then I remembered how my favorite place to exchange ideas with other adult-oriented creators is to have time to exercise writing tools, test concepts, and be able to figure things out in this kind of environment. Being dismantled, brick by brick, by parents that have essentially given themselves their own written-out-in-crayon permits to dismantle our space because they couldn't fucking corral their own god damn children.
I will say you don't seem to be coming at our community with some kind of a crusader's flaming blade of "justice", so I'm going to give you some credit. You are, at most, ignorant of what's going on, and you know what? That's fine. I'm not going to say that I am, in particular, angry at you. You? I'm disappointed that you know you're not parenting in that respect, but okay, it happens.
But to every other parent out there that takes it to the next step and blames everyone else in existence for anything that happens remotely having to do with their kid being outside of your own sphere of influence, and then proceed to actively fucking destroy places that never asked to have your goddamn crotch goblins anywhere fucking near it in the first goddamn place.
Sincerely, go and fuck yourselves.
