Do you have some age check at the time of registration, on your forum?

[Anuj Dhawan]

Subject line says it all - Do you have some age check at the time of registration, on your forum?

Many of the communities aren't really for young children, so there not allowing anyone that's under the age of 13 to become a member make sense but at other it's not usually the case. Said that, do you have some age check at the time of registration, on your forum? If yes - what ages do you allow to register on your forum?

 

[pwarbi]

I think that nearly all forums will have some sort of age verification on the registration page, but of course that's only as reliable as the pwerson that's entering the information in the first place.

If you state it's for over 16's only for example, it's quite easy to work out what toad you'd have to put in there to gain access, so if a potential member is to lie about their age, there's not a great deal as a site owner that you can actually do.

 

[Alexandoy]

No, I didn't bother to have an age check in our office forum because I know that whatever the age, they can easily lie. That's the hard part in online life, lies are prevalent and they can get away with it. I had the experience of having a Facebook friend with a fake name and a bogus photo. All through the years I thought he was a guy and it turned out that she's a girl. Even in Facebook, there is an age limit but I'm sure you also have seen some violations.

 

[The_Arctic_Outcry]

Age check is a waste of time. Underage kids will join forums no matter what and can easily fake their age. When I was 11, I wanted to join the Capcom Unity forums because I am a huge fans of the games Street Fighter and Resident evil. Both games were created by Cap com. During those times the minimum age is 16 and I faked my age so I can join. I pretended to be 20 years old in that forum. I am still a member and because of age faking, Lol I am a middle aged person because of my fake age. Sometimes underage members are more mature than their adult counterparts.

 

[pwarbi]

All a site can do is set out in the terms and conditions what age a person needs to be to access the site. If a user then lies about their age and then finds the site inappropriate, at they then can't blame the site, as you have done all you can, it's their own fault and they aren't then able to make any sort of complaint.

 

[J Greig]

For me, I never have an age check when members are registering. There is no point in it actually, because if someone really wants to register on your website/forum, they will do it anyway, whether that's with a fake date of birth or not. You are best to provide a warning on the registration page notifying them that there could be mature natured content and that they should only proceed at their own risk.