What is the age requirement to get an account for hosting?

[FeloniousMonkey]

my 11 year old wants to create a website . what is the minimum age requirement to get an account ? will you need parental permission in writing ?

could not find the info in your terms of service .

thanks

 

[descalzo]

Old enough to behave responsibly. Since that varies by individual, you are considered old enough until you prove yourself otherwise.

 

[FeloniousMonkey]

excuse me ? so what kind of protection do you offer for their information ? I have never heard of anyone letting children host a website without their parents involvement .
how are they monitored how do you keep adults from the kids ? is this for the free plan or the same applies to the paid plan ? how can a child prove he is not too young ?
I would like to have more safety involved when it comes to kids. It is not the kids I worry about it is the adults who go after the kids.

How do you protect the kids who you host, from predators ?

 

[descalzo]

How do you prove your age?
Check the box that says "I am over 18"?
Send x10hosting a copy of your birth certificate? Passport or drivers license?

If you allow your children to access the Web, it is your responsibility to monitor them. It is your responsibility to teach them how to navigate in an oft times dangerous world, online and off. You adapt the "don't take candy from strangers" speech to fit what they might encounter on the Net.

If anyone, minor or adult, puts their personal data online, they are the ones responsible. The hosting companies can only do so much.

 

[Livewire]

I'm jumping in here since there is some misinformation being tossed around a bit. Please view our Privacy Policy located at https://www.x10hosting.com/privacy , specifically the section related to children under the age of 13. Put simply, we do not offer our service to anyone knowingly under-age, nor do we intentionally maintain information about said users under age, to abide by the US COPPA regulations.

My understanding on this rule is that if a user under the age of 13 does make an account and we are made aware of it, said account is subject to immediate and permanent termination of service, which would result in the immediate erasure of any data stored on the hosting account, in order to protect that child's privacy. Given this, I do not recommend having them create an account with us, and would recommend identifying other hosting providers who either don't need to abide by COPPA (based outside of the US) or who follow COPPA regulations and allow users under 13.

Edit: Clarifying a bit; the reason it'd be up for termination if found is to ensure our compliance with COPPA; because we don't maintain any of the requisite paperwork or procedures to enable us to host users under 13, we wouldn't be able to continue service once made aware of the violation, and would need to cease doing so as soon as the account was discovered.

 

[FeloniousMonkey]

thank's for clarifying , for a moment it was shocking to think that would be acceptable for any service to be devoid of responsibility over age requirements. How does a person prove another is underage ? this is the difficult part surely . and reading on the net from other kids saying all they need to do is lie about their age and no one ever would know... it is worrisome and I disagree with descalzo about parents being at fault. kids lie all the time I know because I have one. most kids today are more saavy with the internet than parents are. most parent are counting on responsible web owners not to expose kids. that is the whole reason why I am asking all these questions. because I am a concerned parent and want to know more about what companies do to safeguard children.

if a kid goes to a liquor store with a fake ID and get's sold liquor, it is the store owner who goes to jail not the kid not the kid's parents.

 

[Livewire]

To be honest, I'm not aware of any cases we've had where age was an issue, at least on free hosting. I'm sure its come up at some point with premium, but since that service requires billing information and a valid payment method, identifying an underage user is somewhat easier. To act on an underage user, we'd likely need some form of legal notification that there's an underage user on the service, as that would be the only way sufficient evidence could be provided proving said user was underage since we don't collect much information on the free hosting users at the start (we don't act on complaints if there is insufficient evidence to support the claim).