I am in no way condoning children to lie about their age. It is no one's fault but the parents for not monitoring their children closely when it comes to things like this. However, IMVU has come a long way since it first started. I am a member and I am in my 20's. I have come across a lot of underage kids out there pretending to be in their 20's just to get an access pass. Well, you can lie about your age on there but now IMVU requires a credit card to purchase the access pass (AP). Sure you might say oh they can go out and buy a prepaid visa or master card. Yeah they could but that won't do them any good. IMVU has new software where they will validate the information on your account with the credit card that is being used to purchase the access pass and it will also validate you are over the age of 18. As of recent, and I am talking now in February, I purchased ap for my new account and I had to call and verify security questions in order for the order to go through. IMVU has set their security measures up a lot higher than what they started out with. So, what was once true in 2007 is no longer true now. I am sure there are loop holes to get around it but in all truth and reality it is no one's fault but the parents if their children gain illegal access to the access pass on IMVU.

Im sorry to say this,, but a lot of you parents are over reactive and over protective. There is a thing called parent control, you know? And you're talking about these people that go in there and say preverted stuff and whatever. So? Your kids HAVE to learn about that stuff eventually. And if you refuse to talk to them about sex, others will. Or they'll learn on their own, which is much, much worse. Talk to your kids, show them right from wrong, and check their web activity. But DO NOT blame a website for this. Don't. And to that guy that says his daughter will NEVER have a computer of her own, now that is just stuupid. Seriously. Stupid and immature. Every kid has a computer now. It is essential for everyday life. Besides, prohibitting these kind of things to kids makes them tempting.
Coming from an 18 year old who never got the "talk" from her mother and lost her virginity at 17 and the movies. Yes, sex in the movies. What, now are you gonna tell your kids not to go to the movies either?

I don't know what some of you are talking about when you say that IMVU is the best place (or worst, so to speak) to find virtual sex online. That is not the purpose of IMVU. Yes, a lot of people try it and try to do those things but when they realize that they can't and when they learn what it's about, they stop. Only people who are new have a tendency to do that, those are the people who go online "looking" for chat sites to "cyber" with another. I have been using IMVU for quite some time now. I am 19 years old. I go on IMVU because I have friends who I like to talk to, who share interests with me, on the client. I don't go on IMVU to "have virtual sex." Quite frankly, if I wanted something for sexual arousal or pleasure off the internet, I wouldn't use IMVU. There are other things on the internet that I am sure plenty of curious under-aged children - and teens my age, even adults - would prefer to look at than a bunch of cartoon characters posing with each other. Quite frankly, there is no way to have sexual intercourse with your avatar and another on IMVU. These actions are not allowed nor have they ever been allowed. As someone else below me said, there are many limits to the poses and actions allowed on the client and though there may be loopholes, people will flag these items and IMVU will take action to immediately remove them.

There are people on IMVU who use it to cyber, but keep in mind also that IMVU is not the only place where you can find people who want to "cyber." There are many, many chat websites and chatting tools that can be used for that purpose. And I have found that most of them are far worse than anything I have ever seen on IMVU.

Also, it's not something I would call a "game" either. It's a virtual world. I don't see advertising that might appeal to children younger than 13 or 14. The advertisements that I have seen on the internet never appealed to me personally. I was invited by a friend who I know in real life. Some of your parents who are posting hateful comments about IMVU should take action against your CHILD or CHILDREN if you find that they are doing something that you don't approve of. But if you have never tried IMVU for yourself, then you really have no reason to be complaining, because you don't truly understand it's purpose. Your children should be taught not to tell strangers their personal information. It is very easy to trust people online, but more than half of the people that you meet are liars. I know this by quite a lot of experience through many different things (IMVU, myspace, facebook, twitter, myyearbook.) The truth of the matter is, if you are going to allow your children to use the internet, they are going to stumble upon far worse things than IMVU. There is plenty of pornography and pornographic images and videos of real women committing sexual acts with men. There is plenty of predators on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, MyYearbook. In fact, there are most likely MORE predators on those sites than there are on IMVU. How often is it that you hear of a child being preyed upon or stalked/contacted in the real world because or through virtual chats or virtual worlds? I have never heard of such a thing in my life, and I do keep up with those things on a regular basis.

It is okay to be concerned for your child's safety but IMVU or no IMVU, if your children are using the internet they are in danger the moment they open a web browser. You are putting yourself in danger by having the internet period; because there is such a thing as an IP address and if someone wanted to find you that badly, all they have to do is look it up. Your children are at risk of finding any thing they want to with the simple click of a button, with a simple search on Google. I have typed plenty of innocent things into search boxes - mainly Google - and inappropriate content will come up even when you aren't looking for it. If you don't want your children to be exposed to these things, first and foremost be open with them about their internet use. Be curious, but don't do so in an intimidating manner. Secondly, set parental controls on your computer. Set time limits. Keep your computer or your laptop in a public room where you can monitor their activity directly. Until you feel they are old enough or responsible enough don't allow them to use a personal laptop or computer in their rooms or in a private space.

The number one and most simple solution to protecting your children on the internet, is not allowing them to use it. Period. There is no way we will ever make the internet any safer, so you either complain about it and bash things that are not meant to harm - such as IMVU - or you can DO something about it and teach your children how to be safe and what is okay and not okay for them to do on the internet.

IMVU is now advertising as the "#1 Virtual Sex Game" with hardcore XXX ads running on the most pornographic sites on the internet, including on PORNHUB.com

This is outrageous!

First, they spend years advertising childish-looking avatars in sexy and situations, aimed squarely at getting as many tweens and teens onto their site as humanly possible, and NOW they are advertising to the horniest men at the moment that they are most likely to be as aggressive as they could ever get!

AND they tell them it's just a sex game, then toss them into IMVU next to our kids.

WHAT THE H#$*???

How many kids are they going to let get hurt? Already there are posts here from 16 year olds ADMITTING that they are using IMVU to have sex with adults. This has just crossed the line.

Please, please everyone. Write to PAYPAL, the payment back-end for IMVU and tell them NO MORE! Write to Best Buy and all the other stores that carry these pre-paid cards that let our kids in to this site and tell them NO MORE!

Write to the people that have been funding this porn operation (Like Best Buy Capital and Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Bridgescale Partners) and tell them they've gone too far!

It's time to fight back!

I have 3 daughters on this website. I read each of their messages and check out all of their friends everyday. They tell me who they've added and the age they said they were. But of course you can't trust anyone on the internet. This website I would say isn't the safest,or the best. I love my kids very much and I would hope that some freak wouldn't find them and harm them in any way. I trust my oldest daughter on this website she is 14 years old and is very mature about what she says on this website and know what NOT to say to boys that she meets, or even girls. I talk to them and find out what has happend.. But it was very interesting when a 30 year old man called for my daughter Hollie,She was scared and left for about a year or so.. later on she decided to re-join. Since then, no problems at all and lets hope there won't be.

Forest meet Trees, Trees Meet Forest...

" Ok I have been on IMVU for the past 6 months and I love it. Yes there is adult oreinted rooms and topics going on that young kids and teens shouldn't have any part of, but to call IMVU as a whole a "caner" and "horrible" is rediculous. "

The issue was never with what users themselves do. No one can control what teenagers do on the Internet ( Obviously the majority of parents don't seem to be able to ), and we certainly can't control what other adults do - we don't have the right.
The issue is the company itself. IMVU ( The Company ) has never been good for anyone, and its not the same thing as Yahoo. Yahoo Chat told you flat out that it wasn't moderated and that they had no control over other chatters. If you were offended you contacted authorities or hit the report abuse button ( Which rarely if ever did any good. ). What IMVU does is different. It advertises a safe place for teenagers and adults to coexist and then it doesn't hold up its part of the agreement to help ensure that there *is* a safe place. You don't get to say " Hey Teenagers, come check out IMVU... We have YOUR safety in mind " while allow drug content to exist in the catalog and on home pages. IMVU attempts to cut the cake all ways and it's wrong.

" I personally have used IMVU as a tool to help me open up. I have always been a very quiet anti-social person and IMVU has encouraged me to talk, meet people, and just relax. Now am I going to meet these people in real. "

That's wonderful, congratulations. I hope that you do however take some precautions when you go to meet some of these people.

" No! Do I give any of them my personal information. No! "

Because they won't need it to follow you home from the restaurant, break into your home and attempt to rape you - or kill you. Make sure you do a lot of research on the many ways to protect yourself when it comes to meeting people off the Internet. The first mistake you can make is assuming that people need your real life information to get to you, and you've already made it.

" If you happen to be a concerned parent then you should just sit down and talk to your kids. Be apart of what they are doing. Make sure they know its not ok to just give some person online their phone number, or e-mail address or anything like that. "

See above. Do you know how many kids put up pictures, posts, and likes on Facebook and Myspace that can be used to find them in the real world? Innocent things that most people wouldn't think two minutes about? A photo with you in a high school t-shirt with ONLY the mascot displayed. That can be used to find you. How about that pizza party you had with your friends at the local bowling alley? Lovely pictures.. how much information is contained in them? More than you'd think. When it comes to personal safety - be paranoid... better that then abducted, raped, and/or dead.


Oh and one last comment. You cannot blame IMVU.

You can when IMVU actively promotes its site and services knowing full well that implied marketing, and unsafe operating can lead to harm of minors. IMVU should technically be shut down.

This isn't a battle of parents not doing their jobs ( Though, again.. many don't seem to have a functional grasp of what it means to do that job it seems. ) its about IMVU exploiting adults and teenagers alike all in the name of the almighty dollar while masquerading itself as being safe.

Food for thought.

A note from a 6-years-old parent:

IMVU is advertising in many game site tht kids love to log in ( or site tht offer kid games)

The ad demo many 3D fig with suggestive position tht adult will do.

I think the site is irresponsible and the authority should keep an eye on it!

I even feel disgusting when I google its site, it has a reminder tht said,'...we encourage parents should take an active role in their kids when surffing the internet....'.

IMVU should not be allow to put their ad in site tht offer activities to under-age kids.

Rgds,