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MiroslavGlavic
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 59
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 Posted: 1/8/2006, 1:55 pm Post subject: minimum age for your forums |
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the standard is 13 (COPPA)
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act
http://www.coppa.org/
anyways, basically it says that webmasters can't collect personal information from users who are under 13 years of age
by the way COPPA is for the USA, I am in Canada...NOTHING AGAINST THE USA...but many of you must be outside the USA...
my site's domain registrar and host (same company)'s office is 348 km's away from me and the servers 514 km's from me (557 mi's/823 mi's)...but they are in Canada...
I know a lot of sites from friends and associates who are in the UK, and even in Canada that use an american webhost, thus being affected by COPPA...
but Canada technically has no "COPPA" nor am I affected to it, the average adult age is 18 (each province gets affected differently for ages of what is considered adult, age of consent, smoking, drinking driving, etc...)
anyways other countries might have their own "COPPA", but not every country has it...
I have set my forums's minimum age as 14.
yes I know people can lie when registering...
what is your minimum's age for your forumss?
why did you set it that way? |
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Patrick
Administrator
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 2006
Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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MiroslavGlavic
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 59
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| Posted: 1/8/2006, 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Patrick wrote: |
The COPPA is enforcible internationally, I am told. Don't ask me what that means.
We enforce the COPPA on users of all countries. They can lie, but that's not our concern. We have to take everyone at their word as that is all you can do. If someone ever says they are 12, etc. on our forums, the post is removed and they are banned. So, if we ever find out, we take care of it. Beyond that, you have to go on someone's word. |
so you keep your forums at 13, why not 14? 15? 16? 18?
by the way COPPA is american, american law has no jurisdiction outside america, if communityadmins.com's host is in California, and let's say the domain registrar is in UK, COPPA would still apply to communityadmins.com since it is hosted in California (in this example).
But different countries have different laws, you could easily make communityadmins.com 18+ but cool, thanks for your answer |
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Patrick
Administrator
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 2006
Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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Kirsty
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 16
Location: New Zealand
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| Posted: 1/8/2006, 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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I took it off altogether, my lawyer here in NZ advised it was just fine to do so.
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~HG~
Joined: 25 Sep 2005
Posts: 423
Location: Australia
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| Posted: 1/9/2006, 3:28 am Post subject: |
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COPPA is not enforceable in Australia and I delete it from all my forums.
I believe if you are old enough to use a computer on the internet then you are old enough to join websites, under parental supervision.
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dojo
Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Romania, Timisoara
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| Posted: 1/9/2006, 8:34 am Post subject: |
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I keep my settings to the normal 13 years of age. But since my communities are family friendly (and I make sure they stay like this) I don't worry too much about a kid seeing something innapropriate.
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Ex0dus
Joined: 26 Sep 2005
Posts: 235
Location: Zarasu, Lithuania
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| Posted: 1/9/2006, 6:56 pm Post subject: |
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Coppa interpretation = fun.
I was invovled in a chat about this on phpbb.com a few months back. After reading through the law, (keep in mind that I am no lawyer) Ive come to the conclusion that COPPA applies only to those sites that are commercial in nature.
| Quote: |
(2) OPERATOR.—The term "operator"—
(A) means any person who operates a website located on the Internet or an online service and who collects or maintains personal information from or about the users of or visitors to such website or online service, or on whose behalf such information is collected or maintained, where such website or online service is operated for commercial purposes, including any person offering products or services for sale through that website or online service, involving commerce—
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and
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| (B) does not include any nonprofit entity that would otherwise be exempt from coverage under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45). |
Also if you dont show any such personally identifiable information in public, nor sell it or give it to any third party, and it is only used for for administration purposes (such as email verification, notification of new private messages, etc) and is displayed nowhere on your site (profile, mini profile, etc)
| Quote: |
(4) DISCLOSURE.—The term "disclosure" means, with respect to personal information—
(A) the release of personal information collected from a child in identifiable form by an operator for any purpose, except where such information is provided to a person other than the operator who provides support for the internal operations of the website and does not disclose or use that information for any other purpose; and
(B) making personal information collected from a child by a website or online service directed to children or with actual knowledge that such information was collected from a child, publicly available in identifiable form, by any means including by a public posting, through the Internet, or through—
(i) a home page of a website;
(ii) a pen pal service;
(iii) an electronic mail service;
(iv) a message board; or
(v) a chat room.
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In otherwords, dont post their info, dont make their info publically viewable, and only use such information for administrative purposes.
Heck, in this law you can even plead ignorance and get away with it (in the event that said user doesnt say they are below 13 and you dont ask.
Yeah its alot ot go through to not show coppa, but it shows that even alot of US sites are exempt from it (all of mine are, since my sites are not commerical).
What would coppa do if the administrator of a site was under 13? This is the case on my brothers site, and ironically enough hes all about catching those people that register on his site under 12 (he doesnt even technically know about coppa but it is funny) >_<
As for my personal feeling on the minimum age on my site, I dont personally care. Age to me doesnt matter, maturity is what counts. As far as the content on my site goes, its mostly within the realm of g-pg 13. I dont allow anything past pg 13. Worst that goes on my community is cussing and some namecalling in very heated topics (that are closed >_<)
-Ex0dus |
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MiroslavGlavic
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 59
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| Posted: 1/9/2006, 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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there are certain topics I find not appropriate for people, one of the sections is about the birds and the bees, love and relationships (all of it one), but certain "adult" topics I do not want people to talk about (going to an extreme), also for example making a thread how to make a bomb for example, I find that inappropriate for any age level.
so what are your minimum requirements and how do you keep it that so threads are the level of maturity (if you want to call it that)? |
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Patrick
Administrator
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 2006
Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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