[hackerspaces] Children in hackerspaces.

[Stefan Arentz]

On 2010-01-25, at 8:16 AM, Ron Bean wrote:

> quemener.yves at free.fr writes:
> 
>> Just to be curious : Has such a thing happened in a hackerspace someone
>> knows on this list ? I mean someone getting hurt, either minor or adult,
>> and attacking the hackerspace in a lawsuit ?
> 
>> Has any hackerspace ever closed because of that ?
> 
> Most hackerspaces have barely opended, they haven't had time to get sued 
> yet. Give it a few years.                                             
> 
> We came to the same conclusion as most US hackerspaces: Adults have to
> sign a waiver, kids must be accompanied (and supervised) by a parent. We
> also set an age limit of 10 years old, but we might make an exception on
> a case-by-case basis.
> 
> Unfortunately this leaves out kids whose parents aren't interested.
> We don't have a solution for that.

Yes this is very unfortunate. We do encourage folks who are left out to join us on tuesday nights where we have open house.

We actually have two people hanging out at the space who are still minors. We made the simple agreement with them that it is fine as long as they are some member's guest. That person will then supervise them and be responsible for them. That is working out fine so far. Also, these people are turning adult this year so it was a somewhat easy decision. I'm not sure if we would do the same for a 12 year old though. It is as you say on a case-by-case basis.

 S.