Why can't I use Stack Exchange if I'm under 13 years old, or if I'm under 16 years old and from the EU?

Question

I was just reading the Terms of Service, and noticed something:

You must be at least 13 years old to access or use the Network or Services, including without limitation to complete a Stack Overflow account registration. By accessing or using the Services or the Network in any manner, you represent and warrant that you are at least 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years old, you may not, under any circumstances or for any reason, access or use the Services or Network in any manner, and may not provide any personal information to or on the Services or Network (including, for example, a name, address, telephone number or email address).

If you are located within the European Union, you must be at least 16 years old to access or use the Network or Services, including without limitation to complete a Stack Overflow Account Registration.

I signed up for Stack Overflow when I was around 11 or 12 and I did provide my email address. Are you saying that my use of Stack Overflow was not legal?

I'm 16 now (so I'm in the clear), but that just seems a little harsh. Is that possibly related to the age limit for accepting a binding contract/agreement (although I thought that was 18 in the U.S.)?

Is there a way for users under the age of 13, or for users from the European Union who are under the age of 16, to use the site legally?

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Answer 1

How do I use Stack Exchange if I'm underage?

Unfortunately, children under 13, or under 16 if located within the European Union, are not allowed to sign up for Stack Exchange accounts. If you are underage, and are trying to participate, first off, we're sorry. It's awesome that you're already trying to help others learn, and it's frustrating to us that (well-intentioned) legal issues make it challenging.

If you wish to use Stack Exchange, we'd encourage you to work with your parent or legal guardian, who can set up an account and use it with you, or establish other appropriate ways to use the site as a family.

Why is this restriction in place?

The U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires that websites cannot collect personal information from children under the age of 13, including "full name, home address, email address, telephone number or any other information that would allow someone to identify or contact the child." This law applies to any business based in the United States, and applies to children from any country.

Additionally, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prevents any website accessible to European Union citizens from collecting the same type of personal information from any person in the EU under the age of 16, or any lower age specified by an EU member nation (with a hard limit of 13).

Since Stack Exchange, during the registration process, allows users to enter their name, email address, and website URLs where other users might be able to contact the user, Stack Exchange is legally obligated to follow these laws.

If you want to change it without doing one of the above, you'll need to do one of the following:

• Get Stack Exchange, Inc. to accept parental/guardian permission for individual accounts, since as long as the parent agrees, COPPA and GDPR allow websites to collect such information. (Note: It's really, really expensive/hard to comply with these rules, which is why almost no sites do it unless their target audience is mostly underage, like DisneyGo.)
• Lobby the US Congress or European Parliament to change the law to allow your usage of the site.

I'm underage and I created an account. What will happen?

Your account will be deleted and all information you provided will be removed from our servers. You can create a new account once you are old enough, or follow the procedures above to have your parent/guardian create an account and use it with you. While you will be able to participate in Stack Exchange again, unfortunately, we cannot reinstate your old account, so any reputation you gained on your old account will be gone.

If you earned the association bonus on your account, unfortunately, that will be gone as well.

Moderators will not be able to see some of the information that is ordinarily kept when deleting an account if the account is deleted for being underage.

But I'm not in the United States or European Union! Why do I still have to be at least 13?

Stack Exchange is based in the United States, and is therefore subject to U.S. law, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The U.S. law, unlike the European law, applies to all accounts worldwide, for any company based in the United States. Consequently, you still must be 13 or older to create an account with us, even if there is no such provision in the laws of your country.

I'm from the European Union, but my country has specified a lower age limit from 16. Why do I still have to be at least 16?

Stack Exchange has decided to limit registration for all people in any EU member nation to users 16 or older, in order to ensure it remains compliant with the laws in all EU member nations, and keeping track of each nation's age threshold in the Terms of Service would be prohibitively expensive, as they may change in the future.

I spotted a user who is underage. What should I do?

If you're a normal user: you don't have to do anything. Users are not legally responsible for underage users and are under no obligation to report them to us. If out of concern you would like to report it, send us a report via our contact form and we will take action.

Note that moderators are required to report underage users. The policy and procedure for reporting are outlined here.