You all say gaia online is this horrible website, where there is porn, cybering, nudity, sexually suggestive content. Have any of you taken the time to turn on your TV to the music station? To the movie stations? Have you seen a PG-13 movie as of late? If you had you'd see that many of the things that are allowed on this website are in those movies, granted yes, there are porn trolls, but trolls don't just exist on gaia, they exist on every forum based website online. Also you should stop blaming the website, stop petitioning it's removal when in fact you need to become more internet savvy, you need to become more aware of what your children are doing, it's not hard to go into your browser history after your child has been on and see what they are up to, and even better, it's not illegal. if you review what they are doing to be wrong you should discuss it with them, you can also buy programs that block the website, firewall it and make it inaccessable to your child unless they have a password. Children are learning about sex in their schools, in what they see on television and what there listening to on the radio, and the books they read. Chances are the things you blame gaia online for are your own short comings, and are things they have known about since they were a child. Hell even when I was a child I knew what sex was before I ever used the internet in my life. Gaia online is a great website, and there are moderators and staff that work as fast as they can to ban people who prey on children and those who post real nudity. All there moderating staff consists of adults and a good amount of those adults are actually parents themselves, I have in my time on the site met many parents who play gaia. Once again I'll repeat it for the mere sake of being redundant, it's not gaia onlines responsibility to safeguard any child OVER the age of thirteen, that's your responsibility. So become more aware, be in your childs business, but not over their shoulder. AZK

Gaiaonline is a great site, with many good qualities. I joined the site when i was eleven years old, and if your child is in the right forums they may learn quite a bit. For example: I learned grammar and sentence structure, how to handle money, how to be patient, and some economics. While, there are great forums... there is some that is not that friendly. Particularly, the General Discussion, where I'm sure is where this site got it's inappropriate threads (or subjects). That is by far the worst forum and the moderators have a very had time trying to keep it clean. Many of the regular users pity the G.D. moderators. If you steer clear of the G.D you're TEEN will be okay. Keep in mind that Gaiaonline is legally a 13+ site, and if you allow your child(-13) to be on gaia there is no one else to blame for what they learn. I am now sixteen going on seventeen, and am proud to say I learned my sentence structure, grammar, and improved my art on gaia

Let's be real here.... parents or prudes can't sit back and be aghast at the content Gaia Online or other avatar based sites or social networking sites have in terms of user language. When your kids go to school, they're face with other kids using the same language as you would find on this site or even on the street. People cuss, especially on the internet where you're virtually guaranteed no physical injuries. So unless your world is filled with sunshine and lollipops, I suggest you place that filter on to block out the "bad" language just in case it's too much for you to digest. There is noticeable product placement with this site. They make that known. I've been a member of Gaia since 2006 and donating money for a Monthly Collectible used to be the only option given to help Gaia run the servers in exchange for a pretty cool item. But times have changed and Gaia's userbase has grown immensely since then. Now Gaia users are shown more options to spend their well earned dollars on. In addition Gaia has created a currency system that grants you Gaia Cash when you donate certain amounts. They've created EI (known as Evolving Items), RIG (Random Item Generator), as well as placed a few new shops to their menu that only take the new currency base. This is all to pay for the expenses of running the site. Does this site teach kids how to spend their money? Not at all. If you believe that this site is teaching the children how to spend materialistically, then you need only to blame yourself. What are you teaching your child in regards to financial responsibility? Gaia is not responsible for your child's spending habits. Computers are not babysitters. Gaia has a few issues with security in regards to user accounts. There have been numerous suggestions as to how they can improve account safety. Measures have been taken and are still being made. Gaia does listen to their users, and that's a good thing. With that many people pitching in their ideas, Gaia can take the best suggestions they see and implement that into the site to cut down on the number of "Hack" reports or attempts. Overall this is a really good site. It's not for kids, it's for teens and up. There are grandparents on this site, parents, college kids, high schoolers, and middle schoolers. Once in a while you find out that there was an elementary kid on there, but Gaia ToS specifically states that children under 13 cannot use the site. This is in compliance with COPPA (Children Online Privacy Protection Act) law. Gaia's users can either create really interesting discussion material, or not. This is heavily dependent on the user. If a discussion, post, or user has stepped out of bounds and have gone too far, Gaia has a system in place where you can report anything deemed inappropriate according to the ToS. Also, Gaia provides it's users the opportunity to get involved with their storylines by producing events and creating comics to further the plot. In all, their content is pretty solid and keeps the users coming back for more. In regards to the author of this review: Trolling is a derogatory term used for people who purposely visit a thread just to cause trouble. You might want to make a note that Moderators do not troll the forums. They monitor.

Towards those who have admitted to being under 13 years of age: Don't be surprised to one day find yourself banned from Gaia. It will remain banned until your 13th birthday rolls by. By rules of Terms of Service(What all who want to try are REQUIRED to read), any persons under the age of 13 are NOT ALLOWED ON GAIA. Not only is it against Gaia's ToS rules, but it is also against AMERICAN LAW. Remember, Gaia HQ is located in Sacramento, California, which is of course in America. To those underaged users, YOU KNOW YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO BE ON GAIA, SO YOU SHOULD NOT BE GIVING ANY SORT OF REVIEW. During registration, if an underaged user gives their real birthdate, they are immediately blocked from joining Gaia. Therefore those kids need to receive a punishment from their parents. And to those parents, the internet is not your babysitter, get of your butts and actually PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE DOING ON YOUR COMPUTER.

I am an ex-user on this site. I mean I suffered a lot of cyber bullying. They tote that it is a place for creativity, but the users well some, will tear your work down even though you are trying to have fun. There have been some pretty hurtful things said to me on this site. And I fear for a few children I know who use this site, because they too have suffered a taste of cyber bullying. And it is happening all under the parents' noses. PARENTS BEWARE! This site is a breeding ground for bullies. My recommendation would be NOT to allow your children the opportunity to even enter this site. I know I never will allow mine to do so.

Gaia is perfectly safe, it teaches good values. It teaches responsibility, because on gaia, you have an aquarium and it works like any other fish bowl, you have to keep going back and keep your fish at good health.

For one, you have to remember that there are people over 18 on gaia. Most are actually 16 - 40. Though I've met a few people who are older. It's a good site, just keep the filters on.

This website is rated PG13 which I don't know about everyone else but when's the last time you saw a PG13 movie? There is partial nudity, some violence, and some strong language. There are filters on the site to make it where the language won't be hardly as bad. I think it's a great place for young adults to meet people and have fun.

I like the ability for younger kids to completely avoid the forums in which most of the inappropriate comments etc. are. The clothing can be made to look a little hoochy, but nothing that junior high kids won't have seen from other games.