Remove date of birth/minimum age

Shadow

Member
Stupid feature, pointless and easiley abused.

Anybody who can use the internet, and knows how to use a forum knows they can change/lie about their date of birth, it's time to find another method, because age just doesn't work, I bet many of you have lied about their age when registering to a forum.

Oops, looks like I've made a mistake whilst entering my date of birth...:rolleyes:...Or is that a lie?
 
This could be totally wrong but I think the idea behind that is so it takes off the liability of the forum owner in certain cases.

True. If a person lies agout their age, then there is not much you can do. Normally you can tell what approx age someone is by their posts.

Stupid feature, pointless and easiley abused.

Anybody who can use the internet, and knows how to use a forum knows they can change/lie about their date of birth, it's time to find another method, because age just doesn't work, I bet many of you have lied about their age when registering to a forum.

Oops, looks like I've made a mistake whilst entering my date of birth...:rolleyes:...Or is that a lie?

There is not much you can do but turn off registrations, and then post: Want to join? Email me a copy of your birth certificate. Which no one in their right mind would do, and if they did, odds are they would have used photoshop beforehand.

As license agreements and TOS's are confirmed with a checkbox. How does one prove they were actually read? But they are there in software and on forums, for a legal reason.
 
Stupid feature, pointless and easiley abused.

Anybody who can use the internet, and knows how to use a forum knows they can change/lie about their date of birth, it's time to find another method, because age just doesn't work, I bet many of you have lied about their age when registering to a forum.

Oops, looks like I've made a mistake whilst entering my date of birth...:rolleyes:...Or is that a lie?

If the user lies then the liability is removed from the user... Not having any protection on means that if someone underage does register on your site then you are liable...

There are some exceptions to this like adult content sites 18+ are required by certain laws in some states/countries to actually check age not just accept users word...
 
Yes, accroding to MySpace I am 110 years old and "more to love".

However like it was said, this is set up to ensure the forum owner isn't liable if anything happens. If the forum happens to be of an "over 18" variety, and it's found out that a minor registers and is exposed to perverse material, they can point to the user lying about their age. If, however, there is no standard for setting your age, then it could be shown that the owner of the forum is trying to provide the material to anybody and everybody.

True. If a person lies agout their age, then there is not much you can do. Normally you can tell what approx age someone is by their posts.
:O Uh oh! I'm both afraid and curious as to what you would guess for me >_O
 
Yes, accroding to MySpace I am 110 years old and "more to love".

However like it was said, this is set up to ensure the forum owner isn't liable if anything happens. If the forum happens to be of an "over 18" variety, and it's found out that a minor registers and is exposed to perverse material, they can point to the user lying about their age. If, however, there is no standard for setting your age, then it could be shown that the owner of the forum is trying to provide the material to anybody and everybody.


:O Uh oh! I'm both afraid and curious as to what you would guess for me >_O

Your 6 right?
 
Stupid feature, pointless and easiley abused.

Anybody who can use the internet, and knows how to use a forum knows they can change/lie about their date of birth, it's time to find another method, because age just doesn't work, I bet many of you have lied about their age when registering to a forum.

Oops, looks like I've made a mistake whilst entering my date of birth...:rolleyes:...Or is that a lie?

Required by the American law to deal with COPPA, you normally will not be held liable for people who lie. But you do need to make sure that if you find out a user is under the COPPA law you remove them until you have their parrents approval or wait for them to turn 13+
 
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