Since its inception, TripSit has aimed to be an inclusive community for those interested in drugs and beyond. After much discussion, we have decided to change our policy regarding young people using the network, and as such we will no longer allow members under the age of 18 to socialise on our network. 

We believe that anyone should be able to receive support for drug related issues, so we we will keep #tripsit open to anyone requiring assistance, so long as they meet our 13+ rule as required by the COPA act. However, every other channel on the network, including channels not owned by TripSit, will become 18+ only.

Part of the reason for this change is that people under the age of 18 are still very much in development, and we believe that TripSit at large is a place children and young teenagers should not be exposed to directly. However, they will still have access to TripSit’s resources through our #tripsit and #sanctuary channels, as well as our online resources on the Wiki and factsheets. 

While we believe that young-adults should be able to directly seek support from TripSit, it is not wise for them to be influenced by the wider drug-related community until a later age. Furthermore, in order to encourage a productive drug-tolerant community, we must allow our members to have the confidence that what they say will not be negatively influencing young people who have not had the same education and experience they do.

Starting today, 2016-04-11, TripSit is entering the announcement period before the new policy takes effect. Exactly one month from now, 2016-05-11, users under 18 will no longer be able to make use of the TripSit channels, with the exception of #tripsit and #sanctuary. Community members under the age will have the chance to say goodbye and get the contact information of anyone they want to keep in touch with, and will be welcome back to the network once we can be assured they are over the age limit. 

During the announcement period, we will be making this policy change obvious to the people who use our network. A full list of the changes will be made available on this wiki document.

After the announcment period, the policy change will start to be enforced, and any user found under the limit going forward will be removed. This rule will not apply retroactively, as in we will not remove users under the age of 18 until there is evidence that they are currently under 18 after 2016-05-11. 

Users who are looking to get unbanned can view the unban procedure here. In short, members will need to wait until we can be assured they are over the age limit, or they will need to provide us proof of age as described in the guide.