What I have said, in counter to your 'you don't have kids so be quiet' statement, was that, in fact, emotional attachments often cloud our judgment. Often. Certainly not always.
And I have not said in any way that your particular arguments are suffering as a result of your emotional attachments. What I've said, several times, is that your claim that your arguments are 'more valid' because you have children is bunk.
But for me to reject your claim that your arguments are better is not the same thing as saying that therefore my arguments are better. I judge arguments based on their reason, not based on how anyone feels. You are simply failing to read my posts clearly--you're projecting some anti-something view onto me, when all I'm saying is "let's look at actual evidence and not emotion".
Now that the conversation is digressing into a "those with kids" and "those who don't have a clue because they don't have kids" I thought it might be good to remember how this inane conversation started.
I would like to suggest that moving forward that you discontinue printing last names on the badges. Especially for children under the age of 18. It was super creepy to have people know my kid's full names. I tried to alter my last name in the system and it caused problems picking up at Will Call. I guess if I come next year I will have to bring tape or something to cover it up. But overall for privacy purposes it would be better to remove them from the badges.
As the OP pointed out, your name needs to match the government issued (drivers licence, state id, passport, etc) ID you provide when picking up your badge/tickets.
As to the idea of removing the under 18 last names, a glance at the person with the child would give a person the last name, so that negates what you were trying to suggest.
Frankly this is a much to do about nothing.
I'm somewhat confused about the entire argument as "stranger danger" is such a debunked theory from the 1980s that it should be relegated to the dustbin of pop culture along with razor blades in Halloween candy and repressed memories of devil-worshipping day care centers.
Every hall at Gen Con has a Hall HQ. And every Hall HQ can look up a badge number - guaranteed. There is a big push to make eTicketing ubiquitous at GenCon. Over the next few years the vast majority of Event Organizers will be using eTicketing. The eTicketing app can identify a player by scanning his/her badge. Gen Con is heavily invested in making sure that app works. All the reviews say it's working great.
A lost child should be taken to Gen Con Staff. No one that does not have the ability to look up the name has any need for it.
The reason for eliminating the name on the badge is the same reason that parenting magazines and websites advise against personalized shirts and backpacks and such. Child predators know that a child is more likely to trust someone who calls them by name. And if you have an unusual name and/or you've been incautious on social media, a web-search can reveal enough for that predator to fool a small child.
If I've offended by suggesting a parent's viewpoint is more valid in matters related to their own child, I apologize. But I still think it's true. You are free to have your own opinion.
I would like to see Gen Con make the name on a child's badge be one that the parent of that child feels is appropriate and safe. Let the parent decide, please. Personally I would not like my child's name to be on display. Wikipedia and other web sources put the percentage of pedophiles among adult men at around 5%. Much less among women, and only a fraction of those are active predators. But given the 70,000 attendees it would seem likely that a few hundred of them are very bad people.
To be fair, your opinion only matters (and with equal weight) if you fall into one of the following categories:
Now, while I still believe that I know better how to keep my son safe than a childless stranger on a web forum, I also believe that it's not my place to tell another parent how to care for their child.
You may feel that your opinion is correct and mine is wrong. Reasonable people can disagree. That's something we seemingly have lost sight of in this country.
"Let me explain my specific concerns relative to my experience as a parent" is a better look than "if you dont have kids, keep your opinions to yourself".
One of those options is actually beneficial to a discussion in a public forum and is intellectually consistent with "we're having a disagreement among reasonable people".
Look, this is getting rather dumb.
If gencon has hundreds of pedos running around, then perhaps you should not leave your kid alone at Gencon. Or not bother bringing your kid at all. Or perhaps not going to any convention where pedos are sure to be targeting your kids, like the hundreds of attendees we all know are there....
As regards skip tracing. I know I’ve been doing it since before Lexus Nexus existed, and I’m not that old. Which means if I can do it “long hand” so can a lot of other folks, especially with all the social media that’s out there now. Essentially, just your name and some time is enough. Your name and your face, even better. Do you have a smart phone on you? Call it done. Now, because we’re talking about kids, did anyone stop to ask how many actually get unintentionally separated from their parent or guardians during GC? They don’t call it a lost child, they call it a lost parent. You’d be surprised how many parents don’t notice their child has stopped, or wandered off, or even worse, Dad is in a game and completely forgot about Jr. and turned his phone off to boot. If you have never had a run in with a pedo, or worse, count yourself lucky, and move on. Many women have had a bad run in of a dubious nature, and don’t want our spawn to fall prey to the same, or worse. While your mileage may vary, please don’t stand in the way of those of us whose roads have been rocky, whose names don’t always match, and who have reason to want the name concealed.
Look, real talk time. GenCon is NEVER going to "Leave it up to the parents" to decide how to best keep kids safe at the con.
Why? Cynical answer… Because Lawsuits. Which is not to say that they don't also have much more altruistic reasons, but... In a society as massively litigious as ours is, GenCon can never trust the parents of kids to adequately protect them. At a minimum they have to have enough in place to cover their liability.
Wow, so not clear on how logic, or sarcasm works. Not the best attempt to sidetrack though, I'll give it a 3 out of 10
Simply because I do not have children does not invalidate my ability to form an opinion nor make it any less valuable.
As a parent, you have the personal responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of your child. That means, teaching them how to navigate in the world including what to do in the event they get lost. Does the child know that if they are lost, who they should go to and what to say. If they are not old enough to be able to do that on their own, they you as the parent need to accept that you don't always get to do what you want.
I think this thread may have jumped the shark.
This seems like as good a place as any for me to post my 800-item list re: why the Gen-Con lottery is unfair and moreover why my first year attending happens to have been the best year