For those who were members of the Faceparty website
Has anyone else had their account deleted?
My account, which I have had for many years, was deleted without warning a fair while ago. I contacted the folk who run it but my emails were ignored, then today I thought I'd give it another go at logging in and was re-directed to the following message:
IT'S A LONG ONE
In the last 2 months, Faceparty has been deleting a lot of profiles from the website. This has been due either to new legal requirements, violations of our terms of service, the non purchase of your account by the new company who is running Faceparty.com, or any of the following reasons. Information on refunds is also on this page. Please read this page in its entirety. Over 36 years old?New government legislation means we need to check older users on the sex offenders list. This legislation is based upon checking email addresses against a government provided list. Faceparty has never insisted on validated email addresses and can therefore not participate in this new scheme. Having discussed the use of our website with the home office and the police, and further some pretty serious crimes caused by older users, we were left with no option but to terminate a huge amount of accounts, and without notice, immediately. We understand that only a minority of older users are sex offenders, but you must understand that we cannot tell which - we can only delete all to make the site safe and we apologise for that. However, we are following the law and you cannot think we are wrong for doing that. Despite malicious rumours spread by a few people on the website, it is not true that we have deleted members due to "ageism" nor older members who have cool tools (we can check members against the sex offenders list if they have purchased cool tools). If you are an older user with cool tools, then you have been deleted for another reason on this list. Spamming / Cam Whores:We are ruthlessly hunting out and deleting all members who are 'spamming' our members with adverts for businesses, illegitimate businesses and prostitution of all kinds. Mis-use of Chat Rooms / Forums:Accounts are deleted for in-appropriate behaviour in chat rooms or forums. For example; flooding, scrolling, racial abuse, sexual discrimination, violent threats, or a generally foul tongue. Non use of Account / Non Participation:If you did not have a picture on your profile, you have a blank profile, or if you haven't logged on to your account for 9 months, your account has been deleted. Inappropriate or Illegal Content:We're cool with the odd naked pic, but if all you do with your profile is upload pictures of porn, you aren't really participating in the way that was intended. This is not a pornography hosting service. We have also deleted accounts where content promoting hatred in a socially unacceptable way has been shown. Negativity / Bitching / Moaning about Faceparty:If all you are gonna do is type "Faceparty is shit" then you shouldn't be using the site. You will be deleted for this reason. Faceparty is not a public service and you would probably be kicked out of Tescos for writing "Tescos is shit" on their walls too. You would also, quite rightly, be deleted for aggressive behaviour towards our "staff" and volunteers (calling them c*nts, threatening to kill them etc has been a problem that has risen to above 1,000 instances per week and we're no longer prepared to put up with that behaviour - we also need to point out that threatening to kill staff = prison). Anarchy Towers did not opt to buy your account:The original crew behind Faceparty and the inventors of the online community (Anarchy Towers) is taking control of the website again. That means this is gonna be the best site on the web, just as it was for every year they were in control in the past. Anarchy Towers is NOT legally obliged to purchase all of the member accounts from CIS Internet Ltd, and nor does it intend to. Your contract with CIS Internet Ltd ends with the closure of CIS Internet Ltd. Anarchy Towers can only afford to buy a certain number of accounts - there is most likely nothing personal in it, we can only buy what we can afford. Faceparty was set up as a youth entertainment portal. Anarchy Towers will not be purchasing profiles of people who use the website for the wrong reasons (ie porn hosting, spamming, older men using the website solely to look at younger people naked, to steal Faceparty's resources by using it as a dating site for the over 50s because they don't want to pay for match.com etc) and similarly members who have not been using their account at all will not be purchased. Older users who use the site for the right reasons may be invited to stay. With so many millions of members, it isn't possible to address accounts individually so certain group data-cuts will be made. We apologise if you are cut-out if you genuinely belong here, but you are welcome back in the future. No member has any legal "right" or "entitlement" to be purchased by Anarchy Towers Ltd. You joined within the last 2 months:Unfortunately some of the creators of accounts who were deleted, of an older age group, have been creating new accounts with a younger age (which means that government legislation classifies them as a sex offender by lying about their age on the Internet, even though most who have done this may have done so with good intent and purely to be a part of a site they love and without any intent to manipulate younger users). However, this is still illegal and it is too hard to seek out and destroy non-genuine accounts, therefore Anarchy Towers has not opted to buy any accounts created in the last 2 months. Anarchy Towers is not obliged to purchase your account. FAQs & Other Info:Why are my Calls / Emails Unanswered?We currently have a backlog of about 70 calls constantly on queue and 3 million emails to get through. That's almost impossible, so all correspondence about any matters must be sent ONLY in writing (normal postal mail) to CIS Internet Ltd, you can send it to them via us c/o Anarchy Towers, 89 1/2 Worship Street, London, EC2A 2BF. Why was no Notice Given of my Termination?Notice is not required for violations of terms of service. We apologise that we were legally unable to give you notice for accounts deleted due to the fact we could not check your details on the sex offenders register. This was because a gang of paedophiles had arrived on the website and had carried out a series of attacks on younger users. We had to make sure that these people could not swap contact details with their potential victims. We know it must have been painful for you to lose your account, but the safety of the users this site is aimed at is more important and we acted based upon consultation with the police. We apologise to the genuine users who had their fun ruined by the minority of sex offenders preying on this site. Police evidence showed that people were about to get killed. Think hard about whether Faceparty did the right thing morally, or not. Lives were saved. Lives are more important than accounts. We would like to point out that Faceparty has always been at the fore-front of protecting younger users online and was a funding member of the IWF. ITV ran a falsified article about the potential risk of paedophiles using the Internet. Chis Choi, the journalist, had already proven his age with an AVS to be in his 50s before he changed his age on his profile to be 14. That means he was actually 50, not 14. It also means he was committing a criminal offence by lying about his age on the Internet. We had also detected his account at that change and removed it within 2 hours. There was no adult imagery on his account. This article drove the first ever problem with paedophile users on the website as his article attracted the wrong type from those who watched the article. ITV on the same day was held in court for fabricating news stories on their news channel in a reaction to losing audiences (please search google for more info). But anyway, don't believe what you read in the papers! The police and home office work with us and we wouldn't exist if the article was true. Please note that UK law now classifies anyone over the age of 18 who uses sexually provocative language towards those under the age of 18 as a sex offence. Although the age of sexual consent in "real life" is 16, it is 18 on the Internet. We understand that some of you disagree with that law, but we do not make the laws. Refunds:Anarchy Towers has not made any billing charges to any member of the website (including shout-outs, cool tools, avs etc). All pay-for-services are managed by CIS Internet Ltd, the previous website owners. If you have any problem, disagreement, legal claim, refund request you need to contact CIS Internet Ltd - the previous owners. All members will be written to when Anarchy Towers is in full control of paid-for services. No refunds are given for TOS violations, in accordance with CIS Internet Ltd's terms of business. If Anarchy Towers does NOT purchase your account then you may be entitled to a refund for the remaining part of your product service from CIS Internet Ltd. To claim this refund you must write by post to CIS Internet Ltd, and send it c/o Anarchy Towers, 89 1/2 Worship Street, London, EC2A 2BF, stating your member name, your password, the last 5 digits of the credit card you purchased the product with and your return address for your cheque and we (Anarchy Towers) will do our best to make sure you get your full refund on your behalf. Cut off date is the end of July 2008. Please include a copy of some photo ID (passport or driving licence) along with your claim for a refund. Please note that the photo and age must match those on your account in order to claim a refund. Refund requests without this ID will not be processed. Think this has been handled badly?...then you need to take out your beef with CIS Internet Ltd and not us!!! You can write to CIS Internet Ltd, and send it c/o Anarchy Towers, 89 1/2 Worship Street, London, EC2A 2BF and we will do our best to make sure they attend to it. Mail only, due to an impossible amount of emails and calls. Please note that the management of CIS Internet Ltd have gone and we are doing our best to help both them and you out, which means we're stressed to the hilt so your patience is appreciated! A Note about Ageism & the Law:Laws for age discrimination apply ONLY to employment and education. There is no legal right for an older user to claim a right to this service. As it stands, the law, the home office and the police are pushing to keep older people out of younger person's websites, because it is too hard to tell the difference between the majority of genuine users and the small minority of those who are not. With no offence intended, it is not the legal right of a 70 year old to claim right to a young person's service. Furthermore, it is not your right as a 50 year old to steal the bandwidth of our youth portal because you don’t want to pay for match.com. There are dating agencies for the over 50s, such as match.com, but Faceparty is not and never has been one. We apologise if you didn't realise. For those threatening legal action for ageism: Please stop shaking the law at us, because we don't only know the law, we are acting upon it. We suggest you read up a little bit more. However, we also want to point out that Faceparty really is cool with older users who use the site for the right reasons - ie, they are still outgoing people who like clubbing etc. There are cool people of all ages and we want users like that, but we can't have them until we can safely be sure they are not on the sex offenders register, because otherwise that 1 in a million slips through the net and people get badly hurt. We also want to stress to all younger users, that it really is a minority of older users who are a problem, most of our older users really were quite cool. We are simply following law. Lying about your Age On-Line:Any person who lies about their age on the Internet is committing a crime under the sex offenders act. It is a criminal offence to pretend you are younger than you really are online. Offenders will be banned and reported to the police. Older users who have been deleted must NOT create new accounts pretending to be younger as that will result in criminal prosecution and you will be placed on the sex offenders register. Eek! I'm worried I'll lose my account!CIS Internet Ltd is about to cease trading by voluntary liquidation (not insolvency) which means your contract with them expires. You may or may not be given a new contract automatically by Anarchy Towers Ltd. If you are worried you may lose your account, or more so the contact details of your friends on here, then act now to swap email addresses. No notice will be given to you if Anarchy Towers does not purchase your account (this is your notice). However, if you are a genuine user of this service, who uses it for what it is intended for (a youth movement community aimed to meet like minded people for fun) then you should not need to worry. Older people who use the site for the right reasons are cool too, but not until we have the technology to validate against the sex offenders register. *Older people who use the site for a dating agency to meet other older people are not the right users. If you are still here by the end of July, then you're pretty safe :) Thank you for your understanding!!For most of you, this is about as exciting as Faceparty could ever be - it means this place is gonna start rocking ...once Anarchy Towers is in full control. x
It's a new one on me, I didn't know it was illegal to lie about your age on the net, how absurd, for most folk lying about their age is for vanity not to molest under age people. I don't recall there being an age restriction to becoming a member of F P but it was some years ago now since I joined.
I created a new profile, cos I couldn't get my original one to show and F P had ignored my emails, and that was accepted but when I tried to log in just now it was denied. As I'm NOT a sex offender and have not been convicted, or charged, with any crime, ever, then I can only assume it's cos of me age! or cos I didn't pay for their 'cool tools' cos none of the other reasons, they have stated, apply to me.
*It's called face party, not under 30's party.
There's nowt like making us older folk feel really welcome!
At this time there is no such law. Lying about your age is not illegal on the internet. Of course, grooming is, so now I will have to stop brushing my hair!
Hey Kwak I had the same couple months back but as I didn't use it that much didn't really bother me but had few contacts on there I can't talk to now which is a real p*** take. I never read all you posted but it was enough what I did read really never thought being 'OLD' was a crime and there is NO such law that says all the crap they talk about.
Mazza
I'd like to hear what the police or the home office have got to say on this one. I've just got a feeling in my guts that Faceparty might have seized on some bit of legislation and then given it a lot of topspin so that it gives them a ready-made excuse to chuck out the over-36s. Any legal peeps out there? Isn't Ducst4 a lawyer - though he hasn't been on for a while.
Oh well, there's always the grab a granny night...
It's a very high handed thing to do, to use an agest reason is wrong wrong wrong, never mind it's not protected by law as they state. I do not use faceparty often either (was not aware there was a problem).
Scary, please accept my sincerest apologies - difficult to tell from this angle.
However, speaking as an auditor, I feel duty-bound to check your figure.
Please make an appointment to see me, as a matter of urgency.
Looking at the way those statements were made, (use of grammar & phrases, etc.), I would suggest the authors were barely out of their teens....
Just an observation.
*edit*
Having looked at the site now, I think the above is stating the bleedin' obvious!!