COPPA Age Restrictions

The cluster discusses online platforms' minimum age requirements, especially 13 years old under COPPA, to prevent data collection from children, including challenges like users lying about age, parental controls, and legal compliance.

➡️ Stable 0.7x Legal
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Keywords

MS US MVP TOS googleproductforums.com FB IMO HN d.o ycombinator.com 13 age minors 13 years kids year olds olds 18 content privacy

Sample Comments

gcb0 Mar 31, 2017 View on HN

they will fix it just like everyone else. see Facebook. just add a "must be 18" to the eula nobody ever read. and then blame the parents if you did track kids.

jeremyjh Mar 6, 2025 View on HN

Where is the parental control that lets me prevent my child from signing up for a social media account with a false age?

8organicbits Aug 3, 2020 View on HN

In practice, can't that easily be resolved by prompting each user to verify they are at least 13 years old, enter their age, or enter their birthday?

abdulmuhaimin Mar 26, 2019 View on HN

isnt that all out of the gate once the kids press the "Im over 13 y.o"(or input false d.o.b) button to use their app/site?If yes, then Im not sure what it protects except false sense of security

quesera Mar 24, 2012 View on HN

Sounds unlikely. How would that reconcile with their minimum age requirement? 13 years for COPPA compliance, as I understand it -- though I only think about it when danah boyd brings it up.

throwawaymobule Jul 13, 2023 View on HN

13 years old is also the age limit for COPPA in the US, so that might be primary reason.

mindslight Apr 7, 2022 View on HN

Er, no. There is an actual privacy law with teeth if you're under 13 ("COPPA"). Companies don't want to be subject to any such regulation, so they choose to prohibit anyone under 13 from using their services. It's widely assumed that people under 13 simply work around these prohibitions by lying about their age, but as long as the companies don't have specific knowledge of this then legally everything is fine. Making the dropdown preclude ages under 13 could be inte

taylorhughes Apr 7, 2022 View on HN

Note that this is due to legal requirements around discovering a user's age in a "neutral" way, in order to block under-13 users (or varying other ages depending on global jurisdiction). This is called a "neutral age screen". The screen cannot indicate that there will be a lockout, or underage users would just say they were older to get around it. It sucks, but most apps of a certain size and liability profile have to implement it this way.

willcipriano May 4, 2023 View on HN

US based? Next time tell them he's 12 and made the account himself without your permission.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_...

osn9363739 Dec 10, 2025 View on HN

It's not banned for under 16s, they just can't sign up.