COPPA - Do you comply?

I'm in the UK - and because this is an American law - do I have to bother complying with it? My site *does* attract users under 13.

At the moment it's set up so that if a user is under 13, they have to get their parents to sign a form and snail mail it to me.

 

What's COPPA :shrug:

Anyhow, I would but my site doesn't really target anyone under 18yrs old. I think the youngest member I have is a 22yr old college kid. The rest range from 25-60yrs old.

 

On my site, I've had a few lie their way in, but once they discover other children on the site and learn of the private forum for the kids, they often ask for admission to it, thus revealing their age. I then lock the account until I get the permission form; some never send one in. (Kind of makes me wonder if it's because they didn't bother asking mom or dad, or if maybe they were really adults and balked at leaving a paper trail.)

 

That's a scary thought.

I deny registration to all members under 13 on two of my forums, and frankly I wasn't aware of COPPA when I started my first forum, but I will definitely start following procedure with that one from now on.

None of my forums contain (or will contain) offensive material (except in an adults-only section of TeeGopher).

Still...

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

Does the COPPA act apply to UK hosted websites?

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

This might answer your question?

COPPA - Children's Online Privacy Protection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act#International_scope

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

Here's a question that the FAQ doesn't seem to answer; while a site run by someone in a different country would operate under different laws (COPPA related), what would they actually do against someone in said different country? What punishments could occur to someone abroad who marketed such a site to the US market without any privacy policy or such like?

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

I think it applies to the UK too with the mentioning of foreign nations. Hmmm, so to comply with that act we need to state what information we collect within our privacy policy and that is all?

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

At least in MyBB you can enable a coppa form which already states that, you can check if vB does have that as well.

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

So does phpBB, so I would have to assume that vB would too.

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

I think it does just we have it off currently, the COPPA on registration that is, we really need to find out if it really does apply to UK hosted websites accessible by Californian children.

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

Apparently it does. If you have USA children visiting your UK site and it IS targeted to children, yes.

 

Re: Are privacy policies required?

Is most certainly does. It applies to any website that targets American children (not just Californian -- the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is not to be confused with the California California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003 (simply, "OPPA")).

 

Theyre so damn similar lol, We will add one up shortly to our forum just to make sure it is fine for American children to visit. It is just stating what info you collect etc correct?

 

Definition:

Complying with COPPA requires you to follow the guidelines stated here: COPPA - Children's Online Privacy Protection

 

Does COPPA apply to guests too?

 

Since you're not collecting any data from guests, then I'd assume not. COPPA is all about the data you retain from children.

 

Thats the thing I dont think we have had anyone under the age of 13 on our teen forums, with it being a teen forum I doubt younger people would come on. I wonder if we actually need to comply say if we were to disallow the registration of children under 13.

 

If you disallow registration to those under 13, you need to be sure to 1) publicize this restriction - make it clear that such members cannot register and 2) enforce it. If you discover that somebody is under the age of 13, you must delete their account and destroy all data you originally retained.

 

By enforcing it would that mean checking the birth date of every new member manually? Sounds like a big job