How old must someone be to join Smule?

[[Member Lovi…]]

I’ve noticed recently that there seems to be a whole lot more children joining collabs so I’m wondering if there’s any kind of age limit as to how young are kids allowed to join?

It’s just a little scary when you put this together with the very disturbing and crazy increase in what I call “stalkers” and “scam artists.” People - seems like mostly men - who just slap some fake name and photo on a profile, follow you, and immediately send private messages. You know, slimy stuff like, “Hey baby, you’re gorgeous...” “Hey beautiful, let’s make music together...”  “You sound amazing, I’d love to meet you...” - adults recognize what it is and can block them, but lots of young girls could easily be taken in by that garbage! And they never have any recordings (if they do, they’re pathetic and just there to mislead...); plus it’s always like “Following 1996” - “Followers 2” - very telling. 🤦🏼‍♀️ It seems like a perfect setup for pedos and traffickers. 🤨

 

Has this ever been addressed before or is it currently? Thanks!

[[Member sdr…]]

2 hours ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

how young are kids allowed to join?

https://www.net-aware.org.uk/networks/smule/

This page puts it at 13+👍

[[Member Lovi…]]

Thank you so much, SDR, for your response. Please note that “Net Aware” is now officially closed as of the end of November 2021. They say they will maintain access to the site for a bit longer but, as they have dissolved the partnership with which they operated the site, in the near future they are being replaced by: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/

Excellent info (on both sites) for protecting children online!

It’s a great app for it’s intended purposes - personally, I love Smule! However, it is very disheartening to note the low safety ratings that Smule received where it comes to child safety, which supports my original premise that it’s a disaster waiting to happen in this arena. (See attached screenshots)

I’m hoping others will join me in calling on Smule admin to take decisive action in working to make improvements, up their safety rating, and get serious about protecting children via their online app.

Just in my observation having belonged for several years now, I see the following as the two major areas where they should start:

1)  Strictly enforce the age limit at which children can join. (According to the website listed above, it claims it’s 13 but that should be displayed more prominently somewhere on information about the app. Even with a very meticulous search I was unable to find it anywhere among the Smule documentation.) 

2)   Develop a strategy (or a better one if one already exists) to flag and discontinue accounts that are obviously there for suspicious reasons. Accounts with the earmarks that I described in my original post - Following thousands but little to no followers, no recordings or only a couple which are clearly showing they’re not there to sing, better instructions for what individual users should do when they are followed by and/or receive private messages from these types of accounts to report this specific type of behavior, etc.

Lastly, I do recognize the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of users on the app and this can be a daunting task, but that does not exempt the developers/admins from staying on top of this issue.

Thanks for listening and I am hopeful for the sake of children everywhere that large strides can be made in this particularly important area…

[[Member sdr…]]

10 hours ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

However, it is very disheartening to note the low safety ratings that Smule received where it comes to child safety, which supports my original premise that it’s a disaster waiting to happen in this arena.

I doubt it. Smule consists of people who just to want to sing and nothing else. Moreover for others who want to meet up and interact in a much more personal level there are innumerable apps out there where they will find more like-minded people. So it is highly unlikely that such people will use smule.

Secondly I think no adult enjoys singing with children. One would do it a couple times just for courtesy sake and then no more. Neither would children enjoy singing with adults. Just guessing. So the chances of interaction is less compared to other apps.

As for sending suggestions to smule, they are busy implementing "Moments" during playback and making your profile into a third rate picture gallery. Forget it.😁

[[Member sdr…]]

23 hours ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

And they never have any recordings (if they do, they’re pathetic and just there to mislead...); plus it’s always like “Following 1996” - “Followers 2” - very telling

These people are probably into to the number game. They would like people follow them back and when they have a sizeable number of followers, they probably would sell their accounts to others. Just wild guessing. It's certainly a mystery who they are and why they do this.🤔😁

Edited December 6, 2021 by sdr

[[Member sdr…]]

23 hours ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

“stalkers” and “scam artists.”

Stalkers are probably looking for adults who are more willing to interact with them primarily because there are only very few children compared to adults. The odds are in favor of meeting up with adults.

Scam artists are after cheap publicity on the platform. They are satisfied with a large following. For this they will do all gimmicks like routinely following strangers, lipsyncing some else's audio to make their video and similar tactics. On the whole these people are satisfied with that.😁

[[Member Lovi…]]

1 hour ago, sdr said:

These people are probably into to the number game. They would like people follow them back and when they have a sizeable number of followers...

@sdrI think you need to re-read my post - especially what you just quoted here. They have no recordings for anyone to like and they’re lucky if they have even one person following them - it’s definitely not about “numbers...”

[[Member Lovi…]]

1 hour ago, sdr said:

Stalkers are probably looking for adults who are more willing to interact with them primarily because there are only very few children compared to adults. The odds are in favor of meeting up with adults.

Scam artists are after cheap publicity on the platform. They are satisfied with a large following. For this they will do all gimmicks like routinely following strangers, lipsyncing some else's audio to make their video and similar tactics. On the whole these people are satisfied with that.😁

@sdrThe first half of your response is naïve at best...

And the second half ignores my post - again - I specifically said they do not have “large followings...” 

[[Member Lovi…]]

1 hour ago, sdr said:

I doubt it. Smule consists of people who just to want to sing and nothing else. Moreover for others who want to meet up and interact in a much more personal level there are innumerable apps out there where they will find more like-minded people. So it is highly unlikely that such people will use smule.

@sdr If you saw what consistently lands - unsolicited - in my private messages and knew how many of these types of follows I have to block every.single.time. I’m on the app, you would know that your hypothesis is incorrect. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[[Member Lovi…]]

1 hour ago, sdr said:

Neither would children enjoy singing with adults. Just guessing. So the chances of interaction is less compared to other apps.

@sdr Everyone is, of course, entitled to their own opinion but your “guess” as to children not enjoying singing with adults just isn’t plausible. Kids generally love to do things that make them feel like they’re older and hopping on to sing with grown-ups fills that bill to a “T!” 

Anyone who surfs an app for reasons other than its obvious purposes in order to make unhealthy private advances towards other users wouldn’t get my vote for having scruples. Therefore, it’s really not a far stretch to say that they wouldn’t hesitate to proposition children, as well. 

So my initial observations still stand, and for the same reasons...

[[Member sdr…]]

57 minutes ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

They have no recordings for anyone to like and they’re lucky if they have even one person following them - it’s definitely not about “numbers...”

People follow others not always after seeing their profiles, but as a reply to their following. So if you see a profile with few followers, it could be that they are recent and are just starting to get followers. One suggestion online to increase your followers is to keep on following others, expecting them to follow back.👍😁

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

sdrThe first half of your response is naïve at best..

I was basing it on the probability that they would find a child to sing with. I assume that Smule has lot of adults and very less children. 

And for the second part of your message, please see the previous reply.👍😁

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

If you saw what consistently lands - unsolicited - in my private messages and knew how many of these types of follows I have to block every.single.time.

Your experience (I assume that you are an adult) cannot be generalized to mean that children would also face the same. Probably it is this erroneous generalization which has prompted your original message. On the other hand one should follow the guidelines in the two linked pages and take care if one lets children participate in smule. 👍😁

[[Member sdr…]]

1 hour ago, Lovin'TheGift said:

Anyone who surfs an app for reasons other than its obvious purposes in order to make unhealthy private advances towards other users

"to make unhealthy..." doesn't follow from the first part of your statement. There could be many other reasons other than the obvious. I mentioned a couple them... There may be other reasons also.

Smule has the blocking option which comes handy in situations like this. Since most of the activities in smule are public, I find it to be a safer place compared to so many other apps where secret personal interaction is part of the model.👍😁

[[Member Lovi…]]

4 hours ago, sdr said:

...I find it to be a safer place compared to so many other apps where secret personal interaction is part of the model.👍😁

It’s precisely the “secret personal interaction” in private messaging that I’ve been describing! 🤦🏼‍♀️

This is really the last I’ll respond as we’re basically getting nowhere and I feel I clearly expressed my points in my original post already. (By the way, at this point, it’s looking more and more like “a numbers game” here when just one post for your replies would have sufficed... 🤷🏼‍♀️ To each their own...)

Thanks for your thoughts. Have a good morning/evening, depending your location! ☀️ 🌙 😉👍🏻