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.
Why do you not want people from outside the U.S, if under 13, be banned, because it's not dabbling with international law because you have to give where you are in the world.
They have a Geo IP thing. From part of the opening post: 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.
Now, after that, you are witing this, you wait, that all underages will write they are less than 13. Khm, maybe, maybe...
I don't know what you just wrote.
Seriously, I can be a 9 years old and say that i am 27, as well, as I can be a 27 years old and say i am 9(numbers are random, neither show my real age).
That is true for any site. Regardless, they still can not allow people who aren't 13 make accounts. If they say that they are over 13 then that user is to blame and AG can claim that the user told them that they were 13. Occasionally, people slip and say their age on the site and if a moderator notices the user claiming he is 12 or younger, they can ban them.
What happens in the case that the parent creates the account for the child, using a password and email address that belongs to them? Or would that fall under the account sharing category?
Users are welcome to submit comments here about it, but our decision on restricting the minimum age to 13 will not change. The decision won't change because of the law.
i wasnt trying to say that the dicision would change,i was just saying that people dont need to repeat the same points over and over again
i was just saying that people dont need to repeat the same points over and over again
... by repeating my opening post in different words. And to say "I hope this ends the debate" is irrelevant because this wasn't a debate topic. It's our rule. I'm here to answer questions about the law we have to follow as a company, not be swayed by opinion.
If they put their age on their profile, or if they say they are underaged in the forums. You can also report them if they say they're underaged in the comments.
And just a quick thing: Don't tell an admin if someone's underage just because they don't have the typing skills you do. You need to have evidence. If they said "Hey, I'm 5", then that's something you'd report, not because of immaturity.
