I wanted to get your feedback on something.

As some of you may already know, the United States Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) requires that Web Sites are to obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13.

Currently, we do not allow anyone under 13 to register for our website and forums.  If there is an interest or a need, we could allow children under 13 to register if we have a faxed or mailed signed permission form from their parents.

I wanted to know what your views are on it.  If there is enough people who want something like that, we will implement it.

The choices are basically as follows:

1. Allow children under 13 to register, but require a signed permission form from their parents.
2. Keep it the way it is.  No children under age 13 are allowed to register for the forums.

If we decide to given them access, we can either:

1. Allow them to use the forum and website as long as they follow the rules and policies.  All areas of the website are rated G so there shouldn't be a problem with them seeing something they shouldn't.  They would have to follow the rules like any other member and would face the same consequences.
2. Restrict their access to certain areas reserved for kids.  This would prevent them for posting in the "normal" forums.  This option won't work unless there are already a bunch of kids registered (which there won't be in the beginning).

I personally favor the first option because any misbehavior will be dealt with by the rules, enforced by the administrators, moderators and the community.

Let me know what you think.