COPPA - Do you comply?

vBulletin should automatically deny those registrations if you set the options properly.

What I meant was if a user mentions that they are 12 years old, for example, or says they are in grade x which means they are younger than 13, then you must take the steps I mentioned above. In other words, you cannot knowingly allow members under the age of 13 on your forum.

P.S.: "Not reading the posts or checking the accounts" is not a valid excuse for not knowing that you have an underage user.

 

It seems we should just add something to our privacy policy about this then

 

This is a hot topic & sore subject on my model horse hobby forum. "The hobby" community is primarily adult, and collectors are interested from a realism & art angle. They are not interested in less realistic toy models. But the stereotype is horse-crazy 13 yo girls, and they are channeled toward my forum by several sources. One of the manufacturers that has a target audience of children, and a product that is more toy and less collectable, actually includes my website in their published "fun you can have" material. They are very bureaucratic and not listening to anything I say. They seem to know very little about the forum.

Anyway. My puzzle is ...
- the kids don't communicate well on the forum
- mature hobbyists do not like the kids in the conversation at all
- some off-topic forum content isn't X but it isn't all that G either - troubled marriages, serious health issues, etc
- if I restrict the forum to 15yo+ the kids lie about their age and I loose visibility to them
- if I restrict which forums younger kids can access they lie about their age and I loose visibility to the true ages
- if I don't restrict by age they are more likely to be honest about their age ... I do have a steady parade of confessed 10-13 yo registrants
- I'm aware there are kids who registered as adults (but I don't know who they are,) but a fair few do register with youth ages (maybe not as young as they really are)

(Why doesn't every parent with internet in the house make sure they know what their kids are signing up for - and what age they use? And what they are selling/buying on the internet? Cuz a lot of parents definitely do not know, or they don't care.)

All registrations are manually approved by me, based on some steps to confirm registrants are real people. Right now I am slowing down approvals of 14 and under by asking more questions which most never answer ... their un-responded registration then ages out of the queue. But they were never told they could not join because of their age, so they don't pass that message on to other youth. (Some are in touch with each other in other venues.)

I do have a Youth forum. What I want to do is beef up the content and make it more fun for younger members, as an incentive to sign up with real ages, accept restriction to that forum and avoid the boring, snarky, crabby grown-ups. However I do not have the people (adults/teenagers) to do that, I personally don't have time. I am serious need of some reliable camp counselor types with the time and interest to do that forum. They definitely do not have to be hobby experts, the kids can't afford much as collectors. Nor do they seem concerned with hobby fine points.

Oh yeah, about COPPA, that was the question wasn't it ...
... ages are required to register for my forum, but they can be hidden from forum display. The only thing I like about COPPA is the excuse not to approve 12 and under because they don't send in the form. Almost none of them ever do, and without it I smilingly don't approve them.

And if I flush one registered as the wrong age I contact them and explain that a) it has to be correct to stay on the forum and b) all the good reasons why they will be glad to give their real age. Hopefully they pass that on to others registered with wrong ages, interestingly the kids seem to know who that is, even if I don't (yet.)

 

The obvious solution here is to either create a new community targeting these children or create a section on your forum for the younger population. If you add a new section then users can be segregated by age related usergroups. Maybe a few of your more lenient and helpful adult members can help guide these children from toy stage to collector stage as they get older.

Your members have to realize that they were kids once and interested in the hobby and horses at that young age. What would have happened without encouragement? They probably didn't have access to the internet or forums and yet they had all the same awkwardness you're attributing to children. People don't learn without teachers and you have the unique opportunity to provide teaching in a niche environment that can broaden an enthusiasm of the subject across generations.

They should try to remember back when they first wanted to collect these items. My niece is 9 and already has a combination of toy and collectable models. Including several handmade models with wireframe skeletons and real horse hair hides.

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

No it doesn't regardless whether the peeps in the US try to say it does. If the sites hosted in the UK and your based in the UK and a British Citizen then the only law your subject to is English or Scottish law depending where in the UK you are.

I would have in your terms of use a section saying that anyone from outside of the UK needs to make sure they are complying with local laws, just to play it safe.

 

I deny registration to users under the age of 13

Thanks Wayne

I have put "I certify that I am 13 years old or older." in the existing checkbox, the one to accept board rules when you register.:thumbup:

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

Thanks for that. Do you know if there are any similar UK laws that we may need to comply with?

 

on one of the forums i admin on, nobody under 16 is allowed to register, sometimes it does get a bit naughty-but everything is suitable for under 18s, no pictures involving nutity, but some jokes may be unsuitable for children, and there is a bit of swearing (although the worse swear words are censored)

the other two are gaming forums that most of our members are 13-18 years old, although im certain some members are younger, i cant prove it. (although some members are obviously lying about their ages in their profile-registering as 100 years old or something)

 

You are absolutely right, Wayne. And for the future of the hobby we should have a place to encourage the younger kids (14/15 and up do reasonably ok on the my current forum.) In 20 years somebody has got to buy the collectables from the aging hobbyists, so the old ones can pay for their medications. :p Actually I'm not being flip, it is really true that there will be no future market for artists' work if we don't build that market starting now.

No, the adult hobbyists have a memory-erase program on their own childhoods. They remember the first model they got, that is all. The hobby is filled with some of the worst curmudgeons, they know it and are actually proud of it. (I'm not proud on their behalf, frankly I think they have their heads up their butts, but I didn't type that out loud, did I?)

I have a Youth forum and there is a nice small group of teenagers that get along so well ... honestly Youth could be a role model for the adult sections!

I have fully-worked-out plans and projects to make a robust Youth section. But it is a LOT of work, it must be continous. I need dedicated camp-counselor types to take it over. I have come up dry. Two of the older youth were very enthusiastic about the idea - but they have been all talk, they have done nothing they said they would do, although I've done all I can to encourage and enable them.

That's part of the reason why I started the other thread asking if people ever used outside folks to handle some of the daily basics of member management, that aren't topic specific. A good camp counselor could make that forum a lot of fun without knowing much about models ... they could get their model knowledge from the kids.

So that's where my COPPA left off ... I would LOVE to have the kids on, with their correct ages ... but I don't have the resources to manage them and keep everything copacetic for the rest of the forum.

When your niece is 14 send her my way. I greatly wish I had a good program for her right now, where she could have fun and not get picked on by crabby adults.

 

I don't apply. It's the parent's job to control what sites their kids go to. And if Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace don't comply, why should I?

 

Well it's the law, so using the excuse that parents should monitor their children is not valid.

What makes you think those three sites don't comply? I just tried to register on all of them using 1999 as my birth year:

Facebook -

MySpace -

YouTube -

 

Hmm, that didn't happen to me before...

And if it's a law, then why do forums give an option whether or not to activate it? Regardless, I don't collect personal information (and I warn users against entering personal information in my rules).