Forum:When was the rule not allowing people under 13 added to the Terms of Use?

The Terms of Use used to have restrictions for users under 13 years old in order to comply with COPPA. But those users were allowed (and could register). Now it says,
 * Any registration by anyone under 13 is unauthorized, unlicensed and in violation of these Terms of Use. By registering the Service or the Site, you represent and warrant that you are 13 or older and that you agree to and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement.

Yet, there are wikia aimed at audiences primary under that age. And many users have self-declared that they are younger than 13. (And that is a violation, users under 18 should not be asked for or supply personally identifying information like age.)

Anyone have more information about this?

-- CocoaZen 03:31, January 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * The change was evidently made on December 10, 2007. --

Yep, that looks like about the right timeframe. By the way, the reason my concern about young users came up is that a teacher is interested in having her class participate and contribute to the Judaism wiki. We've had similar class efforts on the Literature wiki. Some of them don't produce much content, but some have been a good way to improve a part of the wiki.

But this is a 5th grade class, usually that's about 10 year olds. So, given the current Terms of Use, they shouldn't create IDs, and we'd be getting a bunch of IP edits -- probably similar and overlapping ones from the same range (the school's). And anyone who claims that someone else must have used the same IP for a bad edit, so it shouldn't have been blocked, will likely be telling the truth.

I'd really like the kids to be able to edit with IDs -- especially under the guidance of their technology teacher -- but given the current Terms of Use, they shouldn't be creating IDs.

See for the teacher's note.

-- CocoaZen 06:39, January 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * Oh, and the change was made, as Dser says, December 19, 2007, by DNL, who only made 12 edits and doesn't appear to have been staff? But the change was kept. Oh, well... (To see the change, ) -- CocoaZen 07:08, January 27, 2012 (UTC)
 * I don't think Wikia wanted to ban children under the age of 13 editing, but the law was that :( &mdash; [/wiki/User:Sam_Wang S a m ] [/wiki/User_talk:Sam_Wang W a n g ] 07:13, January 27, 2012 (UTC)
 * DNL may have been staff member, but may have resigned from Wikia. (Many staff members have resigned and have little or no edits on CC). Adding Staff Needed since they need to look at this and make up their mind about it.


 * According to Special:Log/rights, DNL was a staff member, but was, at some point, relieved of his position. --


 * This restriction was almost certainly added to comply with Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (aka COPPA). This has actually been law long before Wikia added the restriction, since it took effect in 2000. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 27 Jan 2012 9:40 AM Pacific

(Resetting indent) - Fandyllic is correct - the restriction we place on users under 13 registering is to ensure we're in compliance with COPPA. We have no control if someone registers on Wikia with false information to bypass this restriction, but do close accounts if we have verifiable evidence that the account holder has lied about their age to bypass this restriction. Jen Burton (help forum | blog) 17:16, January 27, 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, COPPA was in effect before this. And the previous rules were believed to comply with COPPA, but still allowed users under 13 to register.  But new legal staff might have re-interpreted the law, I guess.  ??  There are other ways to comply with COPPA other than officially banning younger people from having IDs.  Too bad we can't support this class project.  -- CocoaZen 03:33, January 28, 2012 (UTC)


 * The school could consider setting up their own MediaWiki wiki internally based on an export of Judaism wiki and then have someone review the changes and either import them back or manually put them in. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 27 Jan 2012 9:06 PM Pacific


 * Luckily the teacher figured out a good way to handle it for this case. The students will do the research.  The teacher will log in and help them enter the content -- editing it for spelling and correcting any mistakes as it's entered.
 * Thanks for the suggestion, Fandyllic! -- CocoaZen 18:19, January 28, 2012 (UTC)