Absolutely. Where will this end? Will it become commonplace for all gun crime to be blamed on computer games? Oh, hang on...

Paris for the tongues, cheeks and mirrors

May be PhonePayPlus (Icstis) could open a virtual office on the site. They could log virtual complaints from virtual customers. Carry out virtual investigations. Have virtual adjudications and levy virtual fines.

That would mirror real life.

I find the game's premise ridiculous, but then, I'm a man. Probably most of the girls thought much the same of the dozens of us who spent our breaks in the IT room playing at space warfare on Planetarion. None of us have yet become galactic warlords, incidentally.

Admittedly that didn't involve throwing money down the black hole of a premium rate phoneline, but in this age of child obesity we should actively encourage young people to spend their pocket money on absolutely anything that isn't junk food and sweeties.

And is it me or does PhonepayPlus with its ghastly inconsistent CamelCase read like the name of a company and not a regulator?

Paris because she must be the Thresh of Miss Bimbo.

I wish I had thought of that first!

Isn't it? really? Am I wrong? I mean, can you imagine the queues of pre teens standing outside the chop shops on harley street this is going to cause?

Could this be a storm in a teacup?

http://www.mumszone.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=60971

Not all parents seem particularly bothered by it.

Well nobody visiting the site will be in any doubt about its nature.

Paris, because she's a......

No, sorry. I can't see any link with Paris.

Life imitating art once more. Matt and Trey - visionaries of our time.

But why do I think most of the players are middle-aged men?

If "It simply mirrors real life" then I hope any plastic surgery carries an appropriately weighted risk of coming out worse than you went in, not to mention the risk of random account deletion proportionate to death-on-theatre-table risks. And the surgery should degrade to the point where it needs to be repeated at appropriate intervals, the intervals shortening each time virtual surgery on the same body-location occurs. And realisticly random bulgarian airbag failure (I guess we can assume saline filler these days rather than carcinogens). As SMH cartoonist Kaz Cooks said in her book "Reel Gorgeous": "Why would we experiment on animals when we have women?"

Hmmm, the latent educational software developer in me can see potential for this idea being subverted into something actually useful.

Like maybe, their PARENTS???

I'm sick to death of parents trying to blame the world+dog for the fact that little kelvin/tracey is a ferral tearaway with no morals or conscience.

If they arm their 9 year old child with an unrestricted mobile capable of dialling premium lines, and leave them on their own with unmonitored access to the demonic device that is the Internet, then it should be the parents of these children that should be prosecuted, not the companies making these sites (which incidentally, I can't see many girls aspiring to the real world title of "Miss Bimbo")

Parents, pleast start taking responsibility for your own offspring. You had them - you raise them

"But why do I think most of the players are middle-aged men?"

This is truer than you think. A while back I was involved in management for a major record retailer. A fair chunk of the people who bought Britney Spears and similar crap were 30 something males with greasy combovers, hiding their purchases under their coats on the way out of the store so that mother didn't see it when they got home.

As someone has stated it is called bad parenting! Why can't anyone else see this? No one can police the net, so frankly...if they are made to stop it i shall just create a new one. But i'll make everything free so there is nothing the 'parents' can say. There is no point in this stupidity, if you have a problem with it don't go on it...simple.

I did some analysis using Hitwise Internet usage data and users of this site do skew towards younger women. More here: http://weblogs.hitwise.com/robin-goad/2008/04/miss_bimbo_who_is_visiting.html