Security for underage users

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.

Thanks

إعجاب واحد (1)

Firstly, IANAL. This is solely based on what I’ve heard and what I could find in the last n minutes.

If you’re doing anything with children under the age of 13, you need to read up on and comply with COPPA.

http://www.coppa.org/

From reading this page, here are some first steps: http://www.coppa.org/comply.htm

  • Make a custom Privacy Policy page at /admin/site_contents/privacy_policy
  • Place it somewhere prominent with /admin/site_contents/top and CSS
  • You also need to obtain ‘parental consent’. Consider making that part of your membership approval process.
  • Consider forgoing advertising and GA, as that will make compliance easier

I would also consult with a lawyer, as this stuff may be hard to get right.


This is not feasible, the flagging dialogue automatically creates PMs.

إعجابَين (2)

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?

http://forum.example.com/admin/site_settings/category/legal

4 إعجابات

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.

إعجابَين (2)

Are there any updates on this issue?
Any new features?

Is it possible to block all private messaging among a certain class of users?

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?

إعجاب واحد (1)

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.

Mods can view flagged PMs only. Admins can view all PMs.

إعجابَين (2)

I’m not seeing this in my setup. I’m on version 2.7.0.beta5. How do I enable this?

Hi,

This isn’t a setting anymore AFAIK

You can create a user field for this by going to admin > Customise > User Fields

Result:

There is also a notice at the bottom reminding users about ToS and privacy etc.

3 إعجابات

Noted with many thanks.

مرحباً، هل وجدت إجابة لهذا؟ نحن نتطلع إلى تعطيل الرسائل الخاصة بين من هم دون سن 18 عامًا، مع السماح لمن هم فوق سن 18 عامًا بمراسلة بعضهم البعض بشكل خاص.

إعجابَين (2)

في الوقت الحالي، ما لم يصححني أحد، هو تعيين U18 في TL1 على سبيل المثال. قم بتعيينه بحيث لا يتمكن TL1 من إرسال رسائل، وسيتمكن TL2 (أكبر من 18 عامًا) من إرسال رسائل. ومع ذلك، يمكن للناس الكذب. في مثالي، ما الذي يمنع شخصًا ما من مجرد تحديد مربع؟

أنا أحب فكرة السماح / عدم السماح بالرسائل الخاصة على مستوى المستخدم الفردي.

بفضل @martin قبل فترة، قدمنا “المجموعات التي تم تمكين الرسائل الشخصية فيها” و “المجموعات التي تم تمكين الرسائل المباشرة فيها”. يجب أن يخدم هذا غرضك! يمكنك إنشاء مجموعة “فوق 18” واستخدامها هنا.

4 إعجابات

نفس الشيء الذي يمنعهم من أي فحص حرفي على أي مستوى تقوم به من مجرد قول “نعم، عمري 18 عامًا”.

لا يوجد حرفيًا ما يمكنك فعله لإثبات أن شخصًا ما طفل ولن يتطلب قدرًا استثنائيًا من الجهد ويجب استخدامه على كل شخص. حتى هذا بسيط جدًا للتغلب عليه ما لم تستخدم مستوى من التدخل لا يهتم به أحد لمنتداك على الويب على أي حال.

خياراتك الحقيقية الوحيدة هي أن تكون تدخلًا بشكل لا يصدق للمجتمع بأكمله (على سبيل المثال، نتحقق عشوائيًا من جميع الرسائل الخاصة ونمنع أي إشارات إلى الاتصال الخارجي) أو تثق في أن الناس لن يكذبوا وسيتبعون بيئاتك بالطريقة المثالية.