Adults on Social Networking Sites....

[flyinmac]

How would that help them make money, retaining users is what it's all about, finding links with people years after college is great. I doubt Facebook just wants to connect you when your in school, they want to map out your whole life, that friend time line is really cool.

As was pointed out, the ideas were about protecting the children rather than making money.

But, they could make money using an adult oriented site that didn't permit children. Then, have the children's only access be through something like the school based system I proposed. Then, kids are talking to kids, and adults are talking to adults.

 

[notjustjay]

But, they could make money using an adult oriented site that didn't permit children. Then, have the children's only access be through something like the school based system I proposed. Then, kids are talking to kids, and adults are talking to adults.

Isn't this what COPPA was supposed to be all about?

A number of years ago, I ran a (semi-private) discussion forum aimed for campers and leaders at my summer camp. A few of our sister camps started joining in, including camps located in the USA. Then I started getting questions during our camp association annual conferences. Was I being COPPA compliant? How was I ensuring the online safety of the kids? One camp, concerned about the potential danger, pulled out of the forum. Eventually I agreed that I wasn't able to make the site COPPA compliant and give it the proper attention it needed, and rather than risk any kind of incident I decided to shut down the forum.

And yet, every day, there are kids that talk to strangers on MSN or AIM, on webcam sites, on YouTube, on MySpace and Facebook... all of which are much "riskier" than on a moderated discussion forum.

I don't get it. Do you guys want to protect your kids, or not?