ghadilliI had some very alarming experiences when I started climbing the skill and recognition ladders more quickly. Specifically with coaching / mentoring. Even me, a complete nobody, had a lot of people reaching out for demo reviews and whatnot. But what was alarming was how many of them were quite young, and what was much more alarming was how many of them were way overly personal and even, on occasion, explicitly flirtatious.
This is definitely a common experience. I have had to quite explicitly draw boundaries with newbies I've coached in the past and in once case outright stop mentoring a minor who would not stop making raunchy and flirtatious jokes. I'm generally a friendly jokey guy with people I've mentored but have learned to tone that down a bit as its sometimes taken as an invitation for a more personal relationship than I'd be comfortable with. The crass/ flirtatious jokes seem to be a big part of these younger clique's sense of humor and nobody before me had really explained to them why it wasn't a good idea to behave that way with strangers online.
NoNoeWayWould players be interested in an online safety guide for both adults and minors? Maybe it would help create a standardized language and model specific to our realm for discussing a concern like this.
I've had to have a conversation around these lines with every team or player I've coached and I think its been valuable to the newbies every time. I also had to learn for myself how to draw these boundaries early and set a good example for younger players. A formal resource would have definitely set me up for success. Standardizing something like this in an organization like TF2CC sounds like a really good idea. If the goal is to get people into the scene teaching them how to safely be a part of an online community should be a part of that.