Brendan wrote:
In addition; as far as I can tell the entire "COPPA issue" was raised not out of concern for any child's welfare, but purely as a way to discriminate against a small number of individuals. I would remind people that as far as I know it is illegal (in many countries) to discriminate against someone because of their age (e.g. banning people for no reason other than their age).
While in general it is illegal to discriminate based on age, this is not the case in the US wrt internet activities. Many (most?) forums/websites disallow minors under the age of 13 from using their services completely and actively ban those under 13 so that they remain COPPA compliant. It's hardly discriminatory.
Sites run overseas are NOT exempt. The types of personal information include:
Code:
First and last name;
A home or other physical address including street name and name of a city or town;
Online contact information;
A screen or user name that functions as online contact information;
A telephone number;
A social security number;
A persistent identifier that can be used to recognize a user over time and across different websites or online services;
A photograph, video, or audio file, where such file contains a child’s image or voice;
Geolocation information sufficient to identify street name and name of a city or town; or
Information concerning the child or the parents of that child that the operator collects online from the child and combines with an identifier described above.
Obviously this is not a site directed towards children, and
should be exempt, but since you have children here who are advertising the fact that they are children, it may be an issue.
I am not a lawyer