When you go to an event like this, or say a TED talk or some type of technology conference (VMworld, PyCon, etc), I assume a G/PG rating, unless told otherwise. Sure they were jokes, just told in the wrong setting. Some people like to push the boundaries, and if you give them a soap box, they will speak. This should be news to no one, but when you show PG-13, or R content to someone expecting a PG show, joke or otherwise, then eyebrows will raise.
As an example, lets say you went to see Louis CK [1], is anyone going to be outraged if he did a bit about either of these things, maybe, but that's what they signed up for, both were jokes right, what is the difference, people expect and want a PG-13/R rated show when they signed up to see Louis CK.
When you're at an event with tens of people, you can look around and see who in attendance. All youngish tech guys? Great, let's push the boundary for stupid humor. That's an acceptable judgment, although I personally would still keep it professional. It's an understandable assessment.
If, though, there are hundreds (thousands?) in attendance then prudence would suggest that you raise the floor of acceptability. The lowest common denominating factor has gone way down -- that people here all breathe air and want to see hackathon projects is about all you can safely assume. To come out and jerk off with your phone on stage is very poor judgment and not at all calibrated with the audience.
Some things do not need to be explicitly spelled out, and it is not negligence on the part of the presenters to expect people getting up to speak publicly to exercise a basic level of judgment. The conclusion, "I can't safely assume that everyone here will find this funny, or at least tolerable," is not difficult to arrive at given the circumstances presented.
Agreed. Would be nice if the people running a hackathon like this simply put a note "Keep it family friendly" (which, with a 9 year old presenting, seems reasonable).
Context matters a ton, but don't assume people have a clue, spell it out. "Keep it G rated, this is a family friendly hackathon" ...
I would like to see the opinion of someone who actually brought their young child to the event... or even, ideally, from a child in attendance.
When parents bring a child to an event that's traditionally ~99% adults, I'm not sure that what they want is for the event to down-shift to be more 'family friendly'. They may be trying to show their child more of the authentic grown-up world.
I think that's what my parents were after when they brought me to R-Rated movies at the age of 9. (Or perhaps, they were just too cheap to hire a babysitter.)
But, your parents KNEW it was R-rated, they didn't go into an UNKNOWN and then got whatever they got... I am fine with a hackathon saying "This is X rated, for improving <pornsite>" -- that is perfect fine, it isn't about the specific expectation, it is about SETTING one.
Having no guidance means that if this is acceptable is far more grey... I think it if was supposed to be G-rated, everyone would agree it was not.
Clear boundaries and expectations help everyone, from a parent deciding if their children should participate to an adult deciding if they want to attend.
When you go to an event like this, or say a TED talk or some type of technology conference (VMworld, PyCon, etc), I assume a G/PG rating, unless told otherwise. Sure they were jokes, just told in the wrong setting. Some people like to push the boundaries, and if you give them a soap box, they will speak. This should be news to no one, but when you show PG-13, or R content to someone expecting a PG show, joke or otherwise, then eyebrows will raise.
As an example, lets say you went to see Louis CK [1], is anyone going to be outraged if he did a bit about either of these things, maybe, but that's what they signed up for, both were jokes right, what is the difference, people expect and want a PG-13/R rated show when they signed up to see Louis CK.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_CK