[makeitdouble]

On the apps, yes a ton of wildly popular services will vanish below 13yo.

I understand the calculation on the companies side, and there’s also a widespread “children shouldn’t be using/doing/viewing anything mildly risky” kind of mentality spreading around that makes it a no-risk move to just ban kids from a platform.

I recently wanted to move a youtube account inside the family management umbrella, and setting it’s age at 11 meant the account couldn’t see nor write comments on any video anymore. And there’s no authorization the parent can give to lift the restriction. Of course to move the age back you need an official ID as proof, so it was a one way move…

[jachee]

Isn’t that because of COPPA, which makes it illegal to retain any personally identifying information about or from people under age 13?

[makeitdouble]

Yes and no. COPPA has a direct role in the 13 yo cut-off, but it’s not the whole story.

For instance I’m directly mentioning Youtube, but outside of comments it’s still somewhat usable for a 13- yo kid.

Twitter could have set a mode for 13yo (idk, have parents pre-vet the tweets if they are really into controlling ?) but it looks like it was simpler for them to just ban pre-teen accounts.

I’m not sure facebook can deal with pre-13 yo either.

Basically the shittier the company, the less it will be able to handle the pre 13yo case, and I wouldn’t put the blame on COPPA.