Forums → Support Forum → FAQ: Why we ban under-age users

Hi everyone,

Well, I went on another ban-spree, handing out perma-bans to several users for being underage. I've done an awful lot of these over the past 6 months, and I wanted to write up a quick note about it here to explain why we have to ban under-age users.

The United States has a federal law that we must follow as an Internet business, that states we are not allowed to store any information about users under the age of 13 without parental consent.

Due to the sheer number of users we have on the site, trying to get parental consent from so many users would be an overwhelming task, so we opted for the easier route of saying that users under the age of 13 are not permitted to register an account on the site.

And because we don't want to dabble in international law either, we apply this rule to users from ALL countries, not just the United States.

If we find that you are underage, we are FORCED, by law, to disable your account right away. We can only re-enable your account if you send us valid proof of your birthdate with a note and signature from a parent or guardian.

If you want to use the Contact page to find out how you can send us this information, Justin can forward some information.

So here's the deal: if you admit to being underage, we can 'ause' your account until you turn 13. It will look and feel like a perma-ban because it uses the same controls, and your friends on the site will not have access to your profile any longer. However, once you send us proof of your 13th birthday, we can re-enable (un-ban) your account, and you can pick up where you left off.

However, if we disable your account, and you create an additional account to circumvent the ban, we will mark your old account to never be re-enabled/un-banned.

If your account has been shut off, and you have a question about why, you can contact us through the Contact page. Justin or I will get back to you as soon as we can to explain why.

Users are welcome to submit comments here about it, but our decision on restricting the minimum age to 13 will not change.