I have started a new vBulletin site and one of the forums is going to be for adults only, over age 17. Right now when a new member registers he/she can put whateve age he wants. Before allowing access the the adult-only forum I'd like to verify that the person is as old as he claims to be. Is there any way to verify the age?
Ancient Dragon 5,243 Achieved Level 70 Team Colleague Featured Poster
JorgeM 958 Problem Solver Team Colleague Featured Poster
There are some sites that ask for a credit card just for validation of age and identity. Other than that, Just asking for the age and having the person enable the checkbox that there are of age and understand the terms and conditions of the site, is the approach that I have seen most implemented.
Ancient Dragon 5,243 Achieved Level 70 Team Colleague Featured Poster
Just taking the person's word for it is not good enough IMHO. I don't want to break any laws by allowing under-age children access to adult-content. I've started googleing for this and found one promising site that provides that service.
JorgeM 958 Problem Solver Team Colleague Featured Poster
absolutely...i wasnt suggesting that my first response was advice. I would agree that when dealing with age issues, I would most definately seek out legal advice. Keep in mind that if you do find a managed service, still seek out legal advice as the laws from country to country may vary. I am no legal expert at all, but my thoughts are for example, if you are complying with US laws, but this service is based in another country, that can be an issue for you.
this is an interesting topic. I am going to look into this as well.
pritaeas 2,194 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Moderator Featured Poster
found one promising site that provides that service
I wonder how they do this. Based on web presence alone, there is no fail proof way to check it.
diafol
I tried to do this a while ago and came to the conclusion that all I could practically do was put up a warning, get the user to agree to them (in addition to a clause about age). Muddying the waters with credit card numbers and such is a bit awkward. What about users without CCs? What do you then do with that info? You are legally responsible for storing that info - if you store it. A kid could get their parent's CC anyway.
If you look at Facebook and BBs, they all have a similar approach. I remember phpBB used to (still do?) have a COPPA thingy.
//EDIT
Don't the 'laws' pertain to the country where the server is based?
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