Gaming News, Cthulhu, Sex Crimes

[tcpip]

Recently read from the beginning to the current issue; The Order of the Stick, one of the funniest pieces of work from gamer culture. Roleplaying reviews this week included RuneQuest (3rd ed) and a very old Traveller module, Chamax and The Horde. Played some Traveller: The New Era on Tuesday and Dungeon! Dragonlords Dreamland scenerio went very well except for a very strange visitor.

Last night attended the arthouse film gathering in Collingwood with the usual suspects (Brendan, 2600AU crew, Paul from Polyester). Gorged ourselves at "The New Raffles" (opposite The Tote) and then watched three H.P. Lovecraft inspired films, including "The Call of Cthulhu", a 2005 film in a 1920s style, the very cheesy From Beyond and Dagon. On a related note, fishermen in New Zealand have caught a half-tonne squid. Ry'leh is nearby you know...I-ai! I-ai! Cthulhu, Ftan'g!

The war against youth marches on; a 13 year old in Italy gets pregnant to her 15 year old boyfriend. Her parents and the courts force her to have an abortion (link in Italian). A couple (one 16 the other 17) exchange sexual images of themselves to each other. They are charged and convicted of child pornography (from erudito. In good ol Denver, a 13 year old girl has been charged as both offender and victim for having sex with her 12 year old boyfriend.

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Certainly it's a potential problem. The media reported cases of girls having babies for the sake of the baby bonus. However, the media is biased towards anything with shock value and don't often provide anything statistically useful. The cases may be so low in number that we, as a society, don't consider it important.

The question in such matters generally amounts to "at what point does it matter?" All systems will be rorted, but there's a point below which it's not worthwhile, socially and/or economically, trying to circumvent that. I've seen figures which say that 3% of those on PP are teenagers. If those who receive PP as teenagers get it for an average of 4 years as teenagers and then 11 years after, that implies that about 12% if PP recipients started as teenagers. I've not seen any reliable sources of data on the issue of intent. The CIS has its opinion and others disagree.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well certainly the Federal government's "Baby Bonus" is possibility the worst thought out of all parenting/welfare payments.

I am certainly not worried if 12% of PP recipients start off as teenagers; the late teens to early twenties are, biologically speaking for women in the post-industrial societies, the best time to have a child - except the social circumstances also mean that said women are having children in their thirties.