The discussion revolves around ensuring the online safety of children aged 6-17 on a Discourse forum. josiastobias is planning to create an educational community and is concerned about protecting the children from potential harm.
rking highlights the importance of complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires obtaining parental consent and creating a custom privacy policy. riking also suggests turning off advertising and Google Analytics to simplify compliance.
neil recommends enabling a “terms of service” acceptance checkbox and having parents as moderators or trusted members to help monitor the forum. quixoth22 and geoff777 suggest blocking private messaging for certain user groups, such as those under 18.
nat introduces the concept of “personal message enabled groups” and “direct message enabled groups,” which can be used to restrict private messaging for underage users. Kartoon notes that there is no foolproof way to verify a user’s age without being intrusive, and that trust in the community is essential.
Key takeaways:
COPPA compliance is crucial when dealing with underage users.
Obtaining parental consent and creating a custom privacy policy are essential.
Enabling a “terms of service” acceptance checkbox can help.
Blocking private messaging for certain user groups, such as those under 18, can be an effective measure.
Trust in the community and educating users about online safety are vital.
I’m excited about your take on forums structure and organization of online communities.
I’m considering using it in the near future for an educational community for children, where children aged 6-17 would be the main users, perhaps a few thousand of them.
Naturally I worry about their online safety, and how Discourse could be used to an advantage over existing forums.
For simplicity considering an all-private discourse forum, what security features are there to keep dangerous people away? Such as requiring an approval or invitation from X number of people before signing in, or the absence of private messages all-around.
I know about the 4 levels of trust already, but this is not enough to protect children, I think.
We did add a “agreed to the terms and conditions” checkbox to new signups for a customer. You would definitely want that here – @neil how can they turn it on?
What @riking said. tos_accept_required is one thing you’ll want to turn on.
Having some parents as moderators, or at least trusted members of the forum, could help too (unless it would stifle conversation to know that parents are reading everything). Education about flagging and how to spot suspicious activity can go a long way.
This would be really good.
Just messages to and from Admins and Mods.
One less thing to worry about if your forum’s a little wild and free to sign up.
I’m also very uncomfortable about the messages being read by admins. The topic was closed I wish it could be reopened.
A Boolean to salt and obfuscate?
As I understand it, mods, and definitely administrators have the means to view private messages between other users. Coupled with some sort of homegrown reporting tool using the API, it should at least be easy to monitor for suspicious activity, particularly if PMs are expected to be a rarity.
Making it clear that you are doing this, or have the ability to do this may very well be enough to make troublemakers reconsider.
현재로서는, 누군가 수정해 주지 않는 한, 예를 들어 U18을 TL1로 설정하는 것입니다. TL1은 메시지를 보낼 수 없도록 하고, TL2(18세 이상)는 메시지를 보낼 수 있도록 설정하는 것이죠. 하지만 사람들이 거짓말을 할 수 있습니다. 제 예시에서, 누군가가 단순히 체크박스에 체크하는 것을 막을 수 있는 것은 무엇인가요?
그것은 당신이 어떤 수준에서든 어떤 확인을 하든, 사람들이 단순히 "네, 저는 18세입니다"라고 말하는 것을 막는 것과 동일한 것입니다.
누군가가 미성년자임을 증명하기 위해 할 수 있는 일은 사실상 아무것도 없으며, 이를 증명하려면 엄청난 노력이 필요하고 모든 사람에게 적용되어야 합니다. 또한, 웹 포럼을 위해 아무도 그 수고를 하지 않을 정도로 침습적인 수준을 사용하지 않는 한, 그조차도 쉽게 우회할 수 있습니다.
당신의 유일한 현실적인 선택지는 커뮤니티 전체에 극도로 침습적이 되는 것(예: 모든 개인 메시지를 무작위로 확인하고 외부 소통에 대한 언급을 차단하는 것)이거나, 사람들이 거짓말을 하지 않고 이상적인 방식으로 환경을 따를 것이라고 믿는 것입니다.
