Should all forums be age restricted ?

My personal opinion is that I don't mind it, although this is probably one of the conundrums which led to Discourse adding the ability to poke inside other people's PMs, if you're an administrator to prevent unwanted trouble.

However. Legally speaking, I am not permitted to knowingly permit you to use the site, unless you're over the age of 13. If you tell me that you're under the age of 13, then I would have no choice, but to ban you, given the law.

But of course, it would be a huge hassle to get everyone to scan a copy of their ID to me and it would have a detrimental effect on privacy, so there's really nothing anyone can do about it.
 
I've been foruming since I was about 10, and I turned out okay. /shrug

That said, I think it depends on the forum itself and the content on it. A forum about, say, Pokemon wouldn't really need to be age restricted since it's a game designed for kids that adults just happen to play. I think it's just being aware of who's on your forum and their ages. If they're younger and behaving appropriately, then I see nothing wrong with it.

That said, I do know there's the COPPA laws, but people can lie about their ages, so /shrug. As long as they're behaving, I don't see a problem with it.
 
Felly said:
That said, I do know there's the COPPA laws, but people can lie about their ages, so /shrug. As long as they're behaving, I don't see a problem with it.
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That's something that we can not all control over. anyone can lie and get pass. But end of the day it comes down to how good the staff is to tell if that members is younger by how you types or act.
 
Empire said:
That's something that we can not all control over. anyone can lie and get pass. But end of the day it comes down to how good the staff is to tell if that members is younger by how you types or act.
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Yeah, that's true. Like I said, I've been on forums since I was about 10, and even though I was a little bad then, I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn and grow as a forumer instead of being straight up banned as soon as they realized I was a youngun.
 
I'm not a fan of age limiting, within reason. For example, on my own site, everybody above the age of 13 is more than welcome. We choose 13 because of liability. However, we did restrict part of the forum for people under the age of 18, again, because liability and no need to expose 13 year olds to certain content.

We choose not to care about age to a degree if people act within the parameters of the site-rules and common courtesy.

I've ran into extremely immature 20 or 30 somethings and extremely mature 15 year olds. Why would I deny the latter access to something amazing? Why would I deny myself the great company they can be?
If people don't act within our rules, the staff has options. We have a warning system, we can ban people.
 
As from the quote, with the EU! this is what I have down. SO it says that we allow to have under the age of 13 but needs permission. Keep in mind I can an site that does have adult games, and even sells games that have age on them.

Our website, services and contents are not directed to children under 13. of Which if a Child is under 13 we would need to get in writing permission from a parent or guardian for any use of our website. If no permission is given then the account related to the person under 13 will be limited until confirmation is completed.
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I like to keep it open as an family friendly.
Felly said:
I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn and grow as a forumer instead of being straight up banned as soon as they realized I was a youngun.
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You always learn and grow with it. I always made allot of bad mistakes when I join my first forum back in 2008.. And it was when forums are allot bigger and active then they are now.
 
Felly said:
Yeah, that's true. Like I said, I've been on forums since I was about 10, and even though I was a little bad then, I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn and grow as a forumer instead of being straight up banned as soon as they realized I was a youngun.
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That generally happens when someone goes around telling people about it, especially in the wrong place. Someone said they were underage in a public chat in-front of a Discord developer, let's just say they're not using Discord anymore.

It takes a bit of self control, but I don't think anyone'll really go out of their way to look for people to ban. But, if someone's obvious beyond belief and telling people, then well. It simply can't be helped.
 
Some kids mature at different ages. I began forums when I was 12 I guess. Looking back at my posts i was immature, but that's only normal. Some kids who are 12 aren't ready for content by other users. Depends on the forums and stuff though really. If cuss words, pictures being posted and etc it just can end up scary.
 
Usually, someone has to be thirteen or over to join forums, because COPPA. Letting in underage members in them isn't always a good idea although, I had two youngsters on my old one and despite them being 11 years of age, they both had a mature mind. Guess I was lucky.

Although, there's a 9-year-old that's around ProBoards at the moment...
 
Dunno if I replied, as I am not on the board index. BUT it really depends on the forum you plan on running. If I was planning on having a mature forum that needed people to be more mature, I probably would require a age requirement other than what the law states.
 
X-rating website/blog yes, They have to be. But others will say regards it. Well, with the new UK privacy act you have to point some information down in your privacy policy. And in many cases you have to get some kind of permission from a parent or guardian for any use of our website.
 
Well, according to the law I read, if a kid 12 and younger wants to join up on a forum, they technically need a signed form filled out by the parents to legally do so. So most sites I know of do not knowingly allow registration of 12 and younger.
 
Mohit Saraogi said:
Yes, you have to be at least 13 years old. That's a requirement in Terms of Service.
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Depends on what site we talking about. Each website or location or whatever has different requirements
 
It depends on the type of forum it is. If it focuses on more teenager - adult content then yes, an age restriction would do. But if it's a kids forum or a forum for everyone then no. Besides none of the methods to stop kids from lieing about their age don't work. I own a forum that's for people of all ages and I'm fine if kids sign up for it. I wouldn't be happy if they kept spamming posts or started trolling.
 
Empire said:
I tend to keep my site all ages, other then baby's 😛
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Good to hear that. Forums should be a universal platform that everyone knows they’re going to be safe.

But I don’t get what you mean by “other then baby’s”, can you please tell me what you mean.
 
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