This is a great hack, but I think that having support for COPPA in the XOOPS core would be a big benefit to users and a key differentiator in the marketplace.

COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) is a big deal here in the US. Compliace with the Act is required for websites that are directed at children. Whether or not your site is directed at children is loosely defined.

Ideally, you would want to be able to enable/disable COPPA-compliance in the user registration process and provide a way to configure key elements like where parents should send/fax authorizations.

I know that phpBB has a COPPA element, but I haven't really looked deeply at how it is provided. I've already encountered at least one potential client who would need COPPA support and would love to see it included in the future.

Just my two cents.

James

i don't think the COPPA request would be that hard to implement really.. depending on how it would be displayed when registering..

the hardest part would be age verification itself.. how do you know the 18 yr old who just signed up is actually 18 and not 13? i'm against using credit card verification as that can also stop legitimate users, myself included (i'm 30 and i've never had, or never wanted a credit card) neither would i want a credit card just to prove i'm over 18..

There really isn't a way to determine if someone is lying when they indicate their age. Even if you were to implement something like a credit-card check, there's nothing stopping a kid from lifting their parent's credit card out of their wallet, either.

You can't really guarantee that the COPPA forms you might get via mail or fax are legit, either, I wouldn't think.

I don't intend to be a lie detector. I just need a way to make my best effort to determine whether someone is over a certain age. I can't help it if someone lies about that. All I can do is request the information.

My firm opinion is that parents should be responsible for what their kids are doing on the internet and elsewhere.

However, I know that sometimes, even if a kid isn't really trying to do something "naughty", they might see a site, and create an account really quick without even looking at anything that tells them it's not for minors.

The reason I want to be able to ask for a birthdate to restrict by age is so I can do my best to ensure that inappropriate content is not easily available to children, and also so that I can have some level of legal protection, in case someone's precious darling lies about their age and views a page on my site containing the "f" word or something.

I also run a couple of community-based sites that have some areas where teens are allowed, and some where only adults are allowed - not because of risque or naughty content, but because they are places for adults to discuss grownup issues without being interrupted by kiddie stuff.

What you are getting when you have something like this, is the ability to know that _to the best of your knowledge_ that someone is a certain age.

And yes, it would also be nice to easily let users display their age, instead of their birthdate in their profiles. : )

If I were running a site that was actually "adults only", I'd just have a thing that says something like:

"This site is for adults only. Do not view this site if you are under 18. If you are older than 18, click here."

I personally don't currently maintain any sites that allow people under 14 to participate. Frankly, there's simply not enough aspirin in the world for me to want to run a site with younger kids on it. : ) I just have no patience. But it seems like the ability to include COPPA stuff would be a good thing for people for whom it is an issue.

What I see very little of, in any site/CMS software, is any facility for including the sorts of tags that allow those kid-check type things to work... I used to put RSAC tags on my content, to help parents keep their kids from seeing stuff they oughtn't to, but eventually, I just got sick of worrying about some parent getting upset because their little hacker got to see something they shouldn't - while mommy and daddy were not paying attention.

My roomate has a kid, and a 14-year old sister. The roomie keeps the computer in the living room, where she can tell whether they're up to something they shouldn't be. But more than that, she teaches the kids in her care how to be safe and use good judgment, so we don't have to worry much anyway.

Regardless, being able to have a way to restrict access by age would be a _huge_ help to me, and I presume to other people.

i may see if i can add coppa request on registration into my photo & profiles hack in the near future. as my hack does use a date of birth function. (a bit simple but) i can't see it being all that hard for me to do, even tho i'm not a coder. but i seem to be getting a lot more confident with it these days. in the hack it also calculates the age from the given date of birth.. so on profiles it is displayed as Age instead of date of birth.

i think phppp maybe working on improving the hack or some parts of it even more, but i couldn't tell you anything about that.

i don't think it would be too hard to also hack some piece of code into existing modules that could read the date and allow or disallow a user based on their age. i'll see what i can do. (existing on 2.0.13 at the moment) but i will be doing 1 for 2.2 soon aswell.

Hey :) am i able to get a copy of this hack :)

Thanks

hey Guys :)
Still really like to get a hold of this hack..
or one that does the same thing ay...
also.. able to change the group they r in once they turn 18?
eg.. so they can have access to R18 forums?

this would be a great add on to my site..

thanks heaps guys!