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It's mind boggling that they just "forgot" about COPPA. Out of curiosity I browse the Snapchat scrolling feed from time to time, and since a few months ago I

It's mind boggling that they just "forgot" about COPPA. Out of curiosity I browse the Snapchat scrolling feed from time to time, and since a few months ago I have been inundated with TikTok ads. 90% of them seem to be targeting teenagers, featuring pre- to early teens, dancing in front of the camera and flicking rubber bands at folded pieces of paper with Sharpied messages on them. Something like - "to all the boys who think I'm cute..." (note 1, rubber band flick) "wait till you see..." (note 2, flick to reveal third note, which is covered up by the TikTok logo that prompts you to download to find out the rest). It seems more likely to me that they just followed the classic "move fast and break things," gambling that no one noticed.

hombre_fatal 8y ago
The last time I encountered a COPPA opt-in was on the register.php page of a vBulletin forum where you had to enter your birthdate. It doesn't boggle my mind. I'm sure very few services online would stand up to scrutiny. It's just that such few platforms are ever in that position.
- darkpuma 8y ago
  Are you sure your not just mentally filtering it out? I see "[checkbox] I agree that I am 13 years old or the legal guardian blah blah blah" pretty frequently on signup pages.
  - hombre_fatal 8y ago
    That's possible, but not that I can tell. Neither Twitter.com, Reddit.com, nor Pornhub.com ask, for example. Though, TikTok is a video platform with immense popularity among children. Put those two together and you're bound to be first on this sort of COPPA chopping block, so I suppose I do see how OP's mind could be boggled after all. Maybe it's "just" a fine of $5.7 million.
    - johnbatch 8y ago
      Reddit terms that you agree to when creating an account say: “Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create an account or otherwise use the Services.” https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement
      - hombre_fatal 8y ago
        Yes, but exactly: it's on some user agreement policy along with all the other rules nobody ever reads. I bet TikTok had the same thing. But look at TikTok's attempt at complying in TFA: they didn't just make a /policy edit. They started asking birthdate upon register/login but managed to botch that, so they started asking users for scans of their government-issued ID. If these are the sorts of measures that the FTC needs to see, then who actually is compliant under scrutiny? You can upload selfie image/videos directly to Reddit. Wouldn't Reddit be just as incapable of deleting all content from users that were <13yo at time of upload like TikTok was ordered to do? Don't get me wrong, I think "Are you over 13?" is about as useful as "Are you over 18?" and "Do you agree with our cookie policy?"
      - johnbatch 8y ago
        TikTok allows users under 13 with some requirement that the person signing up should have their parent review these terms. “If you are under age 18, you may only use the Services with the consent of your parent or legal guardian. Please be sure your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and discussed these Terms with you.” https://www.tiktok.com/en/terms-of-use https://www.tiktok.com/en/terms-of-use
        londons_explore 8y ago
        That IMO was TikToks downfall... They should have simply said "No children under 13" and made a date of birth selector making it impossible to select a date younger than 13. Children would then have to ignore the terms and lie to the date of birth screen (fraud) to gain access, yet I'm sure that wouldn't stop most of them. TikToks as a company can publish age stats from the data 'proving' they have nobody under 13, and all of the above should satisfy FTC
sirzarmo 8y ago
>"It's mind boggling that they just "forgot" about COPPA." These are United states laws for a Chinese company...
- gman83 8y ago
  Yeah the Chinese don't mind either if American companies operating in China break their laws.
  - cf141q5325 8y ago
    The Chinese government is a dictatorship that restricts its citizens access to websites which dont follow their regulations. I dont see what your point is supposed to be here.
    - osrec 8y ago
      I assume they were being sarcastic...
C1sc0cat 8y ago
Yes its amazing I work a lot on sites in the Drinks industry and the amount of effort technically and on the legal side to make sure the age gate works correctly is huge. And this is a brand (cant say which one) that has well over a hundred brands and works in almost 200 countries.
- nulbyte 8y ago
  Can I just say how much I hate those? It's not like someone is going to verify it, and I have no idea what happens with that data, either, so I always put the wrong date. If, that is, I even bother to do that. Most of them are easily bypassed. This idea that these are somehow legally required boggles my mind. You don't ask my age before advertising to me...
  - wink 8y ago
    Also totally bogus. Which jurisdiction even counts? When I am of legal drinking age in Germany (16 years for beer) but visiting a micro brewery page from the US (21 years in some states, right?) - what does that mean then? :P
    - C1sc0cat 8y ago
      They should have a site for the German locale which is what myclinet does - same problem occurs whit competitions you have to exclude states that don't allow some types of competition.
kurtisc 8y ago
They must have missed that episode of Silicon Valley

hombre_fatal 8y ago

The last time I encountered a COPPA opt-in was on the register.php page of a vBulletin forum where you had to enter your birthdate. It doesn't boggle my mind. I'm sure very few services online would stand up to scrutiny. It's just that such few platforms are ever in that position.

darkpuma 8y ago
Are you sure your not just mentally filtering it out? I see "[checkbox] I agree that I am 13 years old or the legal guardian blah blah blah" pretty frequently on signup pages.
- hombre_fatal 8y ago
  That's possible, but not that I can tell. Neither Twitter.com, Reddit.com, nor Pornhub.com ask, for example. Though, TikTok is a video platform with immense popularity among children. Put those two together and you're bound to be first on this sort of COPPA chopping block, so I suppose I do see how OP's mind could be boggled after all. Maybe it's "just" a fine of $5.7 million.
  - johnbatch 8y ago
    Reddit terms that you agree to when creating an account say: “Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create an account or otherwise use the Services.” https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement https://www.redditinc.com/policies/user-agreement
    - hombre_fatal 8y ago
      Yes, but exactly: it's on some user agreement policy along with all the other rules nobody ever reads. I bet TikTok had the same thing. But look at TikTok's attempt at complying in TFA: they didn't just make a /policy edit. They started asking birthdate upon register/login but managed to botch that, so they started asking users for scans of their government-issued ID. If these are the sorts of measures that the FTC needs to see, then who actually is compliant under scrutiny? You can upload selfie image/videos directly to Reddit. Wouldn't Reddit be just as incapable of deleting all content from users that were <13yo at time of upload like TikTok was ordered to do? Don't get me wrong, I think "Are you over 13?" is about as useful as "Are you over 18?" and "Do you agree with our cookie policy?"
    - johnbatch 8y ago
      TikTok allows users under 13 with some requirement that the person signing up should have their parent review these terms. “If you are under age 18, you may only use the Services with the consent of your parent or legal guardian. Please be sure your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and discussed these Terms with you.” https://www.tiktok.com/en/terms-of-use https://www.tiktok.com/en/terms-of-use
      - londons_explore 8y ago
        That IMO was TikToks downfall... They should have simply said "No children under 13" and made a date of birth selector making it impossible to select a date younger than 13. Children would then have to ignore the terms and lie to the date of birth screen (fraud) to gain access, yet I'm sure that wouldn't stop most of them. TikToks as a company can publish age stats from the data 'proving' they have nobody under 13, and all of the above should satisfy FTC

sirzarmo 8y ago

>"It's mind boggling that they just "forgot" about COPPA." These are United states laws for a Chinese company...

gman83 8y ago
Yeah the Chinese don't mind either if American companies operating in China break their laws.
- cf141q5325 8y ago
  The Chinese government is a dictatorship that restricts its citizens access to websites which dont follow their regulations. I dont see what your point is supposed to be here.
  - osrec 8y ago
    I assume they were being sarcastic...

C1sc0cat 8y ago

Yes its amazing I work a lot on sites in the Drinks industry and the amount of effort technically and on the legal side to make sure the age gate works correctly is huge. And this is a brand (cant say which one) that has well over a hundred brands and works in almost 200 countries.

nulbyte 8y ago
Can I just say how much I hate those? It's not like someone is going to verify it, and I have no idea what happens with that data, either, so I always put the wrong date. If, that is, I even bother to do that. Most of them are easily bypassed. This idea that these are somehow legally required boggles my mind. You don't ask my age before advertising to me...
- wink 8y ago
  Also totally bogus. Which jurisdiction even counts? When I am of legal drinking age in Germany (16 years for beer) but visiting a micro brewery page from the US (21 years in some states, right?) - what does that mean then? :P
  - C1sc0cat 8y ago
    They should have a site for the German locale which is what myclinet does - same problem occurs whit competitions you have to exclude states that don't allow some types of competition.

kurtisc 8y ago

They must have missed that episode of Silicon Valley