Avatars and NSFW Material

Hey guys, Just as a thought, I access the net for VTES related stuff mostly at work. I am a teacher and Australia has some fairly harsh penalties for certain things surrounding teachers. One of them is basically around "Not Safe For Work"-type material. If I had a student even catch a glimpse of some of the Avatars I've already spotted, I could get fired through these laws and not be able to be employed as a teacher in Australia. I am not saying that WILL happen, but it's a possible outcome. So I'd appreciate it if we could clearly agree from the start that NSFW-type images will be very limited and out of Avatars? Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418

Let us know what avatars you find offensive and if possible a reference to the Australian law on that matter. This subject has to be discussed among the Administrators and the Inner Circle, but we certainly don't want any of the users of this site to get into trouble. But you must be aware that a significant portion of the game material itself can also be considered NSFW. Jussi Hattara Webmaster Extraordinaire Finnish Politics!

Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/caypapa1998442/ This is the act itself. For Government Teachers the requirements are placed significantly higher and are hired through a single, state-wide agency. AFAIK if you have a record of breaching the 'Child Protection Act' you will find it basically impossible to get employment with any organisation that deals regularly with under 18s. Material that is a problem: Anything that is close enough to nudity and isn't directly relevant to the teaching curriculum. This allows teachers to present human anatomy images or classic artworks because it is within a careful context that is well known and not thought to be generally exposing children to harmful content. It is against the Department of Education & Training's guidelines to show content that is higher rated than PG (Parental Guidance) to students without written permission from their parents on a form explaining what content makes the film M15+, what teaching purpose this film addresses and where that fits into the curriculum. This is also true when we are dealing with students who are 16 or older and could access this material on their own legally outside school. So, I'm not saying we can't splash this place with vampires, girls getting their neck bitten and so on... just keep it nice and close to PG-rated please. Retired Baron of Sydney, Australia, 418

I'll try to remember to bring this up when I talk with the ICs. Jussi Hattara Webmaster Extraordinaire Finnish Politics!

It would be nice if all images on the site could be deactivated in fact, for "secretive" use. I don't know if it can be done easily on the website side. Apparently, there are no options in Chrome or Firefox to do that. Prince of Paris, France Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director

Images can be turned off in firefox in the preferences somewhere. I don't have firefox any more so can't say where, but I know I have done it before (when my net was throttled and I still wanted to be able to read stuff on the web). For chrome, go to tools->preferences "Under the hood" Privacy-> Content settings... Images-> "Do not show any images" -- salem

In FF Preferences go to "Content" tab and there you find a checkbox that says "Load images automatically". Uncheck that and the browser won't load the images automatically anymore, unless you whitelist a site. Jussi Hattara Webmaster Extraordinaire Finnish Politics!