User blog comment:Ihaveawiixboxds/Underage Users Shouldn't Be Allowed./@comment-Brandon Rhea-20121120214311

Hi everyone. I’m Brandon, a community manager here at Wikia. I wanted to clear up a few things regarding our Terms of Use as they relate to COPPA.

First, there seems to be a misconception that being on a website while you are under 13 is illegal—as in, a violation of the law that could lead you to being arrested or somehow punished. This is not the case. It’s illegal for us, as in Wikia, and other companies and websites like us (such as the aforementioned Facebook) to knowingly let someone operate an account on our service if we know they are under 13.

COPPA states that parental approval is allowed, but that would require us to collect and maintain a record of information such as a driver’s license number or credit card number of parents for every account someone under 13 wants to make. For a service as large as ours, with millions of registered an accounts, you can imagine how impractical that would be! We therefore do not allow anyone under the age of 13 to operate an account on Wikia.

The point there is, the legal responsibility is on us, not the user. That means if we find out a user is under the age of 13, we will close their account per our Terms of Use, and in compliance with COPPA.

I also want to clarify that if you disagree with this rule, and you are a citizen of the United States, then you are of course free to write your local representative or senator, or President Obama, asking them to consider pursuing a change to the law. This is a United States federal law that Wikia, as a company hosted in the United States, is required to follow and cannot change. It is the decision of Congress to pass laws and the President of the United States to sign them into law.

If you see someone on the wiki saying that they are under the age of 13, and you are worried about that, you can report it to Special:Contact.

As a word of advice for those of you saying on this thread that you are OK because you are 14 or whatever age, I’d put forward the following. Age is a private matter that shouldn’t be shared carelessly online, same with your name, location, and any other private information about you. This is especially true if you aren’t an adult, but is a good idea whether you’re 14 or 41. Keep in mind, too, that it’s not appropriate to ask other users what their age is either. As our Terms of Use say, our service cannot be used to "Solicit personal information from any user under the age of 18".

I hope that clears up a few things!