[varenc]

I've been seeing age checks like this more and more.

Recently the FTC came down hard[0] on Kurbo (aka Weight Watchers) for not doing enough/anything to stop children under 13 (COPPA) from making accounts. Since they're not confident there's no children with accounts, now all Kurbo's data is tainted and they have to delete all user data and destroy any "algorithms" derived from that data.

Historically Dropbox probably never asked for a user's age so they might worry they could run into this problem in the future. The threat of all a company's data being tainted is a huge one, so of course they're now overreacting a bit.

p.s. hopefully you can get your account fixed, but if not, you could use the amazing rclone[1] tool to copy your files off. (it's rsync for cloud storage). Or you could just put them in a folder shared with another DBX account.

[0] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/03/...

[1] https://rclone.org/

[hungryforcodes]

OK but if you read the link you included WW specifically MADE an app for children and collected the data:

"the agency... marketed a weight loss app for use by children as young as eight and then collected their personal information without parental permission."

That is pretty wilful -- so we can be confident they have or had data targeted from children. Dropbox on the other hand -- I'm not sure how that case is similar. Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they?

[varenc]

Fair point! That does seem like a key difference. But I still wouldn't be surprised if all tech industry legal/compliance teams have been spooked by this. Also under COPPA no one under 13 can make an online account for anything, regardless of what it is. So it's definitely still illegal for Dropbox/Twitter/HN to have 12 year olds with accounts (without parent consent).

They might just want to be able to demonstrate to the FTC that they're confident there's no children with accounts, instead of just telling the FTC "it's well known children don't really use cloud storage services anyway so we never bothered to ask for age".

[tyrfing]

If you read the link at the link, they specifically call out maintaining accounts of kids who revised their birthdate below the limit, and for encouraging kids to lie by stating they had to be at least 13.

> Are children now allowed to use cloud backup services? Why wouldn't they?

It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.

[hungryforcodes]

> It's basically a service for storing personal information, so probably not without parental consent.

I'm not sure I see the logic there. The previous poster who said in the US children under 13 are not allowed to have online accounts makes more sense legally.

[astura]

Children can obtain parental consent for some online accounts, if the site supports it. Ex. Microsoft -

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/parental...

[ryandrake]

IANAL, but my understanding is that nothing in COPPA prevents children under 13 from making accounts or using Internet services. If this were true, Roblox would not exist. COPPA only limits collection of children's personal information. A company that says COPPA prevents them from allowing children to use their services really just doesn't want to go through the effort of not collecting that personal information. So, instead they throw up their hands and just blanket forbid children under 13 from signing up, to avoid having to comply with the law. But, this is their own policy, not anything mandated by COPPA.

[armchairhacker]

Kurbo is really controversial though. It’s a health tracker specifically for kids, as young as 8, which focuses on calories and weight more than nutrition. And it tracks everyone’s data, so because of technicalities if the child is under 13 the parents have to sign them up (still tracks their data).