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COPPA regulations in the United States prevent us from collecting personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 without the consent of a parent or guardian. This has been interpreted to include email address, which is a requirement for registration here.
Currently, when someone registers, the first question is their birthdate. If they are under the age of 13, they are allowed to register, but their account won’t be activated until the permission form is received (to date, I’ve received zero). However, it’s possible for someone to get around this by lying about their birthdate when they register, and then later entering their real birthdate in the profile.
COPPA rules will not hold me liable for some kid lying about his age, but if there is reason to suspect that they are under 13 (such as a birthdate entered on their member profile), I need to confirm their age and either get the signed permission or close their account.
If you run across someone who has information in their member profile that indicates they are under the age of 13, please let me know. I’ll handle these cases directly, using an email similar to the one below:
username,
I need to confirm your age. Our COPPA Policy states:COPPA Policy
All users under the age of 13 must seek permission from their parent or guardian in order to gain membership of the BigBlueBall forums. While we welcome participation from members under 13, we require that a parent or guardian fax or mail back a signed permission form before we grant membership.If you would like to start the registration process prior to us receiving a permission form, check the ‘I agree’ checkbox and press the ‘Register’ button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.
A copy of the permission form can be downloaded here.
For more information about the registration process, or the BigBlueBall forums in general, please send email to jeff@bigblueball.com.
If you are, in fact under 13, I’ll need to get a permission form from a parent or legal guardian. Without that, I’ll have to remove all personal information and close your account.
Thanks for helping me sort out this issue.
Jeff Hester
http://www.BigBlueBall.com
This doesn’t happen to often, but it does need to be dealt with. As for the IRC channel, the COPPA regulations do not apply there, mainly because we’re not storing personal information in the IRC channel.
If you have any questions about our policy, just ask.
Hmm it sure would make it easier if there was a way to search members by age, but I guess that would be pointless to everybody else. I’ll be on the lookout for such members. Good catch Sarah!
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