Has being too young been considered a crime here?

“Crime” implies that the user is going to be arrested. We are not reporting underage users to the police so don’t worry too much about :) If a user is under the age of thirteen, and proceed to sign up for an account on Fluther, then they are breaking one of the required terms for creating an account. Violating this policy is grounds for having the account terminated. The user can always return to Fluther when they are of age.

Most websites in the United States have similar policies (and I remember breaking them myself when I was under thirteen—don’t tell my parents!)

We do take all flags seriously. However, if a user flagged as “underage” will not automatically have their account disabled. Obviously it is fairly difficult for us to gauge what age users are—it is the Internet after all. If we have reason to believe that a user is deceiving the community, then the moderation team will look into the situation as best we can.

People under the age of 13 are not allowed to be here. I don’t think it’s harsh. We have rules that should be followed.

I don’t think people under 18 should be here, but that’s me. It is not inappropriate to flag you or your activity. It would not be inappropriate to remove your account.

Trust no one over the age of thirty!

@Dan_Lyons It’s not so much trust, it’s just that this site encourages very adult discussions that I don’t think are appropriate for children.

The mind of someone under 13 (well, really much older, but 13 is good enough) isn’t able to keep up. Although that young age tends to think they know everything, I haven’t seen a single one keep up and stick around. There are a few 18 year olds that aren’t doing so bad…

@MollyMcGuire, while I agree that some discussions are not appropriate for minors, I don’t think they should be kicked off the entire site. It should be up to their parents to monitor what they see online.
I came to Fluther at the age of 15, and stayed away from NSFW questions until I was 18.

Look if it’s in the rules, you have to abide them no matter what.
Well it’s very clear that the NSFW stuff is not apt for minors. And underage jellies should stay away from it. But ofcourse fluther authorities can not just assume that minors won’t look into inappropriate stuff. So they gotta make rules, and restrict minors to indulge in fluther. I think that’s quite sensible.

@DipanshiK That’s the problem; they don’t. Thirteen is the age at which people can join this site.

@MollyMcGuire haven’t this restricted already. I thought authorities would have come up with something like this. Sorry ignorance on my part.
I just thought it was so important, that they need to abandon it’s use by the minors.

The site has always had a minimum age requirement.

Become a crime? No. It has always been a Fluther crime to participate if one is under thirteen. It is not too harsh at all to flag underage users; it is notifying the mods of something happening on the site that is against Fluther guidelines. The mods are here to enforce the guidelines and the flag button is there so the community can help them do so.

As other’s have mentioned, Fluther has a minimal age requirement, which happens to be 13. We have had users join that are under 13 and once we find out, we send them a message that they are too young and ask them to come back when they are older.

The age of 13 is consistent with Child Privacy laws in the US. This age varies by country.
Here are the ages for Google accounts which I assume follow the same rules:
The minimum age requirements to own a Google Account

United States: 13 or older
Spain: 14 or older
South Korea: 14 or older
Netherlands: 16 or older
All other countries: 13 or older

@Mimishu1995 Yeah, it’s a crime but you’ll grow out of it.

This is a legal issue like LuckyGuy says. These rules are complete bullshit since it is easy to lie. But they protect Ben and Andrew from lawsuits so they are needed.

Yes. You’re under arrest.

Maybe we should have an option for a jr. jelly page.

The laws that being discussed are not really relevant to the issue that this site is too mature for 13 year olds. How easy it is to take a wrong turn.

It’s not legal to allow children under 13 to register with any website without complying with some very stringent regulations and acquiring parental consent. These are called the COPPA laws. Sites made for children and allowing under-13s generally do not allow anyone over 13.

Crime (as in put that person in jail) no. But it is a part of the guidelines for Fluther. And what @downtide said.

Plus it eliminates us from having to read so many un-capitalized i’s.

@Kardamom Plus it eliminates us from having to read so many un-capitalized i’s

Reduce, yes. Eliminate, I don’t think so ~