I’m not quite fully educated on what justifies marking a user as underage, but the WelcomeBot set me with this person: http://www.wikihow.com/User:Pheobe-pallett
- and she very much does not appear to be thirteen or older, according to her profile picture. I would take into consideration that this may be a parent to a child, but her one article seems to not have very good grammar, and it doesn’t quite seem that a parent would pick that photo of a child for a profile picture. However, she has not outright stated her age, so I’d like to ask - what justifies marking a user as underage, and would she count in this instance? Thank you very much!
I believe that policy states that a user cannot be blocked per COPPA unless they expressly
state that they are under 13. I know it’s a bit difficult in cases like this, where it’s rather obvious that the user is underage from their profile picture and grammar (in my experience, those tend to be the dead giveaways), but you’ll just have to wait until the user states her age if you think she should be blocked. If she never does, well, I don’t think there’s much you can do. You might want to ask ChrisH about it, though.
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W.E. is correct. ANY user could post a childhood picture of themselves… and potentially use chatspeak instead of correct english. We can’t go by grade level either… it’s got to be some age specific referent. Even then? Any kid can edit here so long as their parents give express permission. See this article for more info: http://www.wikihow.com/Respond-to-an-Underage-User-Illegally-Using-wikiHow
In the event that you believe a user is underage, the best thing to do is contact an admin or post to the admin notice board. It’s best NOT to mention the person’s username the forums in the case that a user really is underage. When age is explicity stated, it’s best to keep it to the admin notice board or ask an admin and remove any mention of age to protect the person. EDIT: Adding in “not” that was left out of initial post. Thanks to @Alabster
for pointing out my error.
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hi so i have no idea what this means as im also quite young but maybe its their child or something
I posted the {{age}} template on the user’s talk page.
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When I see someone who I suspect might be under 13, but hasn’t explicitly stated it, I usually post {{safety}} on their talk page: http://www.wikihow.com/Template:Safety
The reality is that someone under 13 can use wikiHow if we don’t know their age for certain, and it’s inappropriate and unacceptable to try to find out their age, so at the very least we can urge them to use the Internet carefully.
Ahhh…anyone can do, be, or say, whatever - regardless of maturity, knowledge, or responsibility. What a wonderful place we live in now. I just joined here, hoping to find mature, knowledgeable, intelligent conversation. Over three quarters of the conversations are obviously written by very immature kids. Oh well. Off to searching again!
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Some people look younger then they seem.
Keep an eye on her though.
Thanks a bunch for all your help! I’ll keep this all in mind in the future.
Anna’s right, when I was 13 people said I looked like a 9 year old, still remember how small I was
OoT2D
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If Wikihow doesn’t want any kids on Wikihow without permission, why can’t on the sign up you put the question, ‘age’?
That, and, we don’t really care what someone’s age is the vast majority of the time.
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I have a question. There is this friend of mine who want’s to join but she is 12 and a half. I told her I thought you had to be 13. Would it be OK for her?
No. Without a signed consent form from her parents signed and sent to wikiHows’ office, she is not allowed by COPPA law.
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OK… When she turns 13 she will be able to though,right?
