A while back in a move to extend their user base, social networking site, Mixi, changed minimum user age from 18 to 15. Naturally this move put them in a bit of a legal pickle.  Under-aged users tends to lead to some drama, no matter where the site is based.  To counter the threat of predators and to stay within the “Dating Site Regulation Act”, they have decided to ban dating altogether.

It seems like an odd move to ban dating on a social site, but it is a good move to try and avoid lawsuits. The big gaping whole in the plan comes from the fact that the ban techncally only applies to opposite sex dating.  Same sex relationships (likely no matter the age of the participants) have a loophole.

Normally this would be funny but slightly discriminatory at the same time,  instead it is just stupid.  With the low birth rates of the user base, it would be a great idea to encourage dating. But going through the social service and deleting any dating groups is not helping the situation.  It is great that they do not want to end up like Myspace, but this is probably not the right way to go about it.