Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-32684847-20170719170601/@comment-25406802-20170731141132

Please stop making continuous messages ranting about the age restriction, it is unnecessary.

Also, copied and pasted.

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a United States federal law designed to limit the collection of personal information from people younger than 13 years of age. It was passed in 1998, and has been updated only once with a set of revisions that become effective July 1st, 2013. The Federal Trade Commission  (FTC) oversees the application and enforcement of the law. It applies to any website or service based in the U.S.

One popular misconception is that COPPA absolutely forbids anyone from using certain websites. While this can be a common outcome, the stated goal of the law is to make sure that websites obtain parental consent before they collect personal information from children younger than 13 years of age. Unfortunately, in the online setting, obtaining and verifying parental consent puts a legitimate strain on internet companies who would have to staff entire departments dedicated making sure that the parental approval was genuine.

Instead, most companies like Wikia choose to limit their service to users who are over the minimum age. In order to comply with COPPA, Wikia requires that all users must be 13 years or older at the time they sign up for an account. During the registration process, you agree to our Terms of Use. Part of that agreement is an affirmative statement that you are 13 or older. Lying about your age during the signup process is grounds for immediate account closure and a global block from our network. This is more than a simple Wikia policy, it is a means of making sure that we comply with federal law by removing personal information when we gain knowledge of an under-aged user.