Do you think DOB is necessary during registration?

[thalada]

Do you think people need to enter their D.O.B during the registration process? People can always fake it off and some members will be concerned about their privacy as well?

 

[Page]

Depends on what website. But for me Nope! they have an option for having it or not. there are website that has age restrictions in that has to have that turn on

 

[Cryptonic]

COPPA should always be enforced. DOB is a must. USA Federal Law states it's absolutely mandatory.

 

[Cierra]

I have DOB enabled upon registration and COPPA settings turned on, youth under 13 years old must have parental permission to join & use the forum. I've only ever had one case of that where the parent did send in a consent form because their child expressed interest in signing up and our forum niche also has an educational aspect to it. Until that form was received the account was basically held in an awaiting approval status. Although the member in question didn't turn out to be an active user anyways... As far as privacy, there's the option in your profile to completely hide your DOB from anyone else besides staff after registering and you'll be removed from the "Who's Birthday?" list on the index and calendar. No one has had a problem. Yes, users can and I'm sure do lie about their age but it's important to have.

 

[erich]

Depends on the content of your site and if the audience needs to be a specific age or older.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I believe people should provide an age for their account. If someone doesn't want to allow their age to be known, most up to date forum softwares allow for the hiding of that information, or selectively showing only what you want to be known. One forum software I use, has options to show your entire birthday and age, hide your birthday and age, or just hide your age.

 

[Jason76]

I'd rather not have personal info displayed. It isn't anyone's business.

 

[KnownSyntax]

In order for COPPA you need that information, now that doesn't mean that it needs to be displayed to the public by default either (you can have it private and let the user decide if they want it to be public or not).

 

[Solidus]

Not unless your niche is age sensitive. The fewer fields to fill out on registration, the better.

 

[Gus]

COPPA should always be enforced. DOB is a must. USA Federal Law states it's absolutely mandatory.

Are you sure it's a current federal law that is enforced?

But yeah, it's good to require member to enter a DOB so you know what you're dealing with.

 

[Mozzie]

I don't make it a priority, i have the option