What To Do When Your Kid Runs Into Reddit’s 10 Day, 100 Karma Rule For Posting
Last Tuesday at 8:17 p.m., my 12-year-old Lila heaved a sigh so dramatic it cut through the episode of baking competition I was halfway through. She leaned over the back of the couch, phone held out at arm’s length like it had bitten her. “Read that,” she said. I paused the TV, squinted at the bright screen, and there it was, plain as day: In order to post your account must be older than 10 days and have 100 positive karma.
Lila had spent two weeks drawing a full-color piece of Nahida from Genshin Impact, the one she’d been planning to enter in the big fan group’s monthly art contest. She’d made the account that morning after I said it was okay for her to join the group, as long as she didn’t share any personal info. She’d cropped the art, written a little caption about how long it took her, hit post, and got that message instead.
“It’s stupid. I’m not a bot. Why do they care how old my account is?” She plopped down next to me, the half-empty mug of hot cocoa on the coffee table sloshing a little over the edge, and twisted the drawstring of her dinosaur hoodie until her knuckles went white.
I used Reddit in college, so I remembered these rules existed, but I hadn’t thought about how confusing and unfair they feel when you’re 12 and your whole goal is to show people the thing you worked your hardest on. My first instinct was to say “it doesn’t matter that much, just draw for yourself” but that would’ve been garbage. That art mattered to her because she wanted other people who loved the same character to see it. Dismissing that would just mean she wouldn’t come to me with this kind of problem next time.
So I pulled up the subreddit’s about page to read the reason for the rule, instead of just guessing. It said the rule was to cut down on spam accounts that post scams, stolen art, and hate speech. I turned the screen back to her and said, “Remember two weeks ago, when you posted that cat drawing on your Instagram and got 15 comments from random accounts saying click this link for free art supplies?” She nodded, still frowning. “Those are bots. People make 100 new accounts a day just to post that garbage. If they let every new account post right away, all the real art gets pushed off the page and no one can see it. This rule keeps that from happening.”
She thought about that for a minute, then said, “Okay, but how am I supposed to get karma if I can’t post anywhere? That’s a catch-22.” She wasn’t wrong. That’s the part no one tells new users.
So we sat there for 20 minutes and figured out a plan that didn’t involve cheating by posting in random karma-farming groups, which most moderators ban anyway. First, the account has to be 10 days old no matter what, so we had 10 days to get to 100 karma. I suggested she start with the smaller Genshin beginner art group, which doesn’t have the 100 karma rule. Instead of posting her full finished art right away, she’d comment on 2 or 3 other people’s posts a day, with something specific instead of just “cool art.” Like, “I love how you blended the green in her hair, I always struggle with that” instead of one-word replies. Specific comments get more upvotes, because people can tell you actually looked at their work. Second, she could post her work-in-progress of the Nahida drawing in the beginner group to get feedback, which would also give her a chance to get upvotes from other beginners who are in the same boat.
After we made the plan, I started thinking this rule that feels so arbitrary is actually a pretty good low-stakes lesson. A lot of people talk about online spaces like they’re this wild free-for-all, but every community has written or unwritten rules to keep it nice for the people who care about it. This rule forces new people to slow down and participate before they just drop their own content and ask for attention. That’s not just for Reddit. When you join a new art club at school, you don’t walk in the first day and ask everyone to come buy your cookies for your fundraiser. You say hi to people, look at their work, get to know how the group works first. It’s the same idea, just spelled out clearly in a site rule.
It’s been 8 days now. Lila has 71 positive karma right now, and we’ve got two more days before the account hits the 10 day age requirement. She checks her karma after school most days, and last night she told me she’s been DMing with another 12 year old who also draws Genshin art, and they’ve been swapping coloring tips. Earlier this week she got a comment on her WIP that said her line work is really clean, and she taped a printout of that comment to the side of her desk.
She still wants to hit 100 karma in time to enter the contest, and there’s a chance she won’t make it. If she doesn’t, she’ll be upset, and that’s okay. I’ll help her figure out the next steps, or enter the next contest next month.
I went into this whole thing ready to just problem-solve a random kid internet problem, and I came out surprised that this annoying little rule ended up teaching her more than any lecture I could have given about online manners. A lot of parents I know just tell their kids to get off Reddit as soon as something like this comes up, but I’d rather she work through this with me than try to hide her account and figure it out alone. We’re still waiting, we’re still 29 karma short, but right now, that’s okay.
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