Question on TOS?

See what happens when an eight-year-old is allowed to comment on PFB?
hehe

I think your idea of community moderation is the one thing that would
actually work. And I think The PFB Team should seriously consider
doing that before things get any worse, because it is obvious that the
current moderation program is not working. And I'm sure the goal of
owner/management is for the site to be a popular and successful
resource for consumers. Otherwise, what's the point?

Now that I think it, if The PFB Team wanted to clean up the site and
change the commenting style, the time to do that would have been at
the relaunch. It would have been a lot easier to implement a
moderation program when PFB resurfaced after being gone for such a
long period of time. Unfortunately, things stayed the same as far as
commenting, and then it went from one extreme to another. I really
don't see any way that could have worked.

How do we know the 8-year old ever came to PlanetFeedback?
Maybe he wrote the letter by hand or on a word processing program, and
his mom or whomever Debra R. might be chose PlanetFeedback as the
means to send such letter.

If the account is in the name of someone who is eligible for
membership, and under their supervision, someone ineligible send a
letter, is it that big of a deal?

I think the 13 and up rule is a result of law as previously mentioned.
This is not necessarily a "rule", but a requirement for anyone
collecting personal information online such as names and addresses. It
is not PFB specific. All websites have this same rule.

My thought is that since the TOS also serves a legal purpose, this
section was likely added to be in legal compliance and to avoid any
issues that may arise.

To the people below -
I think this part of the TOS is a legal issue - collecting information
from users under the age of 13 is governed by the Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act.

I got the impression that it was under a parent's account as well.

I don't think moaning about the 13+ rule is apples to apples with
commenting rules. One is site policy and the other one is law governed
by the FTC.

Perhaps the TOS should be revised. Many kids of the age of that
letter writer have been online for a few years and surely this site
provides a communication tool that kids can use as well as adults.

If this is done to protect kids: I feel that the level of moderation
on this provides a much safer environment for a young person to
interact with adults than other websites. If any conversation were to
get inappropriate, it likely would get dealt with promptly.

I just don't think using this site provides much risk to kids, and I
think kids have a lot to offer a site like this.

Yes, our TOS does require users be at least 13 years old. In this case
we made an exception for the following reasons:

1. Every indication is that the 8 year was using an adult account,
most likely a relative.

2. It was a great letter. We are happy to provide a way for this young
person to offer feedback.

He has written two letters so far. If this person continues to write
letters then we will certainly take another look at the situation
however we're not particularly worried about it at the moment.

Thanks for helping make sure folks use our site properly!

Good Eye, didnt catch that.

Wonder what will happen?!?!?! Hmmmmmm


Good Day