It’s really sad that that’s considered creepy.

I got a lot of flak for going to a high school play in my late twenties. I had played D&D with the kid and his mom every week for years. He was great to hang out with when he was 14.

I think it’s a bit more general than that because I didn’t have any “childhood friends”, just bullies who were never punished.

What I did have was a great number of excellent adults in my life. In many ways, they were more my peers than anyone my own age.

Their example and support made my parents instruction significantly more effective despite the serious challenges with my mental health that they didn’t know how to handle.

The general idea of the narrative might be set, but many times I see a company’s response in the story.

You usually have some influence. Enough people are smart enough to read between the lines to make it worth trying.

Perfect example: I had to fire someone from staff rather promptly. The reasons were serious even that not responding to questions in timely manner would have been a fatal error for the convention.

Unfortunately, there are times you can’t opt out of the game because opting out is a response. Silence will be misconstrued as support.