protect site from minors

So a little background... I'm familiar with CMS software like Joomla, so I'm familiar with concepts.  I want to use Dolphin as a social networking site for adults, but I want to be able to have new visitors verify 18+ before letting people into the main page of the site.  Any thoughts on how to do this?  Would I just hide profiles, links, galleries, etc on the homepage from guests? Or would I have to modify something else?

I'm in the same boat as you. Building an adult site and needing to keep minors away.

Firstly you can set a minimum age for registration in the settings. Now while that is a first step it's hardly anough to keep minors away especially since there is no way of confirming the birthdate someone enters. I'm wondering if services like NetNanny will work with Dolphin.

As for the main page you can always set the default page to only show "features" of your site and none of the pics that people put up as is the normal setup. Another way of handling it is to make a landing page load before the main page that requires the surfer to either register or login in before entering. This can be a simple HTML page and the redirect is written in your .htaccess file.

Various "safety" sites like NetNanny, CyberSitter, SafeSurf, and ICRA are not software-specific, so will work fine with Dolphin, if you follow their instructions.

Having a splash page that requires an assertation that the visitor is over 18 is a good safety net for you. Those things plus the minimum age for registration should do the trick. Oh, and possibly not allowing views of naughty stuff without registration would be a good idea, although certainly not a requirement.

*smiles*

I pay zero attention  to those things, but aren't all of those all client side solutions?

Partially.

The client needs to have the software to recognize such sites as marked with adult content per their instructions. But having your site registered with them (especially ICRA) is a big step towards showing that you would really rather toe than cross the line.

You can do all mentioned here to better your site, but minors can surpass all those regardless. In the adult industry, there is still lack of control when it comes to these issues. Type "sex" on google and see how all those sex sites don't even have warning pages...I wouldn't worry to much about, just make your site and don't have adult content on the main page and that will help...

Thanks to all.  What I've done is set all Profiles, Galleries, and Photos to members on the home page for Guests.  I've also added a HTML Block that says that you have to register to see any content.

Since I'm not that familiar with .htaccess files, I wouldnt know how to handle the redirect.  Visitors can still see the items if they're directly linked, but that I can't really prevent right now.

Redirect (in your CP) to for instance /members and then (again in CP) password protect the /members
directory  .....  anyone without a password doesn't get into/members  ..... 

HTH
.