Board Thread:Consensus Track/@comment-3485828-20140722174414/@comment-26474238-20140723010852

Elchzard wrote:

Sky Above,Voice Within wrote: You keep saying we don't have the obligation to protect the ToU's parameters, and that just may be true, but we also don't have any obligation to, say, reporting a criminal. Yes, I do understand minors can be often mature beyond their age (I myself am a teenager), but, as Garoux said, problems with minors can and will lead to wider issues, and it's better to enforce the law than not to. I don't really comprehend what's the big issue with this.

I don't think that there is any "big issue," and my apologies if I've made it seem like one - I just want it to be clear that I do not think that any bans should be handed out for ToU violations. This is not our responsibility. The bans will be given for violation of on-site policies about being underage and sharing personal information, for reasons separate from the ToU. Whatever Garoux said, I do not believe that we are going to be legally implicated by any COPPA violations that might take place. Wikia is responsible, as long as an administrator uses Special:Contact to report the fact that someone has said they're under the age of 13. Wikia Staff, though, only disable accounts if there is actual proof that people are under the age of 13. Screenshots and logs of chat do not fall into this category in 99% of cases. I talked to Sactage, and he said that generally an edit has to be made to a page by a user stating that they're under the age of 13 for Wikia Staff to hand out bans for COPPA violations. Again, I'd like to state that we are not, as an administration team, expected to police Wikia's terms of use. I'm fairly certain that we cannot be legally implicated for somebody simply saying that they're under the age of 13 - I am happy to be proved wrong, though. As it stand I'm certain that Wikia will take all the blame, if there is any to be taken, on that front. To preempt this blame in the first place, we use S:Contact to have a dialogue with Wikia staff, if there's any actual proof that a user is under 13. Handing out local, TESWiki bans has no relevance to COPPA whatsoever. This is a fact.
 * Ban anyone who states they're underage, then post a message at their talk page.
 * Technically, it is, although that rule is often disregarded. I personally don't see the use in it, as we already assume all people here are above thirteen.
 * They are literally stating they're underage, and we're encouraged to always assume good faith, so assuming they're lying isn't the more productive path. We may benefit by asking them if they're any serious with the statement that they're underage before banning, though.

Therefore the issue we're discussing here is entirely separate from actual legislation (COPPA). This is about our own policy on minors, not about the Wikia site-wide one - which we all know and is clear. For this reason I'd like ask that we all, myself included, stay on topic and talk about a TESWiki policy on minors/children - not about COPPA, as that's not what this thread is about. Please keep in mind that nowhere, have I ever stated we would be legally implicated for a minor having their personal information revealed. I stated that Wikia would take the full brunt, but would cause collateral damage, as damage control would possibly require for the offending wiki be taken down either temporarily, or permanently, depending on a court's ruling. Even if there is not a ruling, Wikia Staff would still have to remove viewing access temporarily to go in an purge any offending content from their databases.