Forum:Policy to commit to COPPA

Resolution

 * Policy: All users who identify themselves as under 13 years of age are required to create an account that does not use any personal identifiable information (especially real names) to mask their IP address from the common user, and are not allowed to provide their email address.
 * Users who identify as under 13 years of age, and are confirmed to have an email address listed in the system, will be advised to erase their email address from their preferences.
 * Users who do not comply within a given time with this advisory will be banned indefinitely, until the user states on his/her talk page (which remains editable by banned users) that either he/she is 13 years of age or older, and is confirmed by a sysop who does have an email address posted on Star Wars Fanon (and therefore allowed to use Special:Emailuser to confirm) makes sure the user is telling the truth.
 * The MediaWiki pages needed to change the text on the editing bar when a contributor is not logged in will be changed to add that "anonymous" users under 13 years of age are not allowed to edit, but creating accounts is painless and instantaneous and attaches no risk.
 * Additional emphasis of the policy will be added to the FAQ page, the MediaWiki:Recentchangestext page, and the Star Wars Fanon:Editing policy page.
 * Policy: Staff members and local checkusers will be advised to not check the IPs of users who admittedly are under 13 years of age, to preserve the ability of many Star Wars Fanon users to continue contributing to the Star Wars Fanon wiki, and remain legal under United States law, in which Wikia is a subject to.
 * Checkuser rights should be used sparingly, if ever, and as a last resort. In the midst of recurring vandal attacks or suspected sockpuppetry, the user contributions pages should first be compared and the style of vandalism checked for similarities to identify whether the vandals or otherwise suspicious accounts are committing sockpuppetry.
 * When it is obvious that several vandals are striking and they are likely the same person, sysops do have the ability to block whatever IP the dishonest account is using, without discovering what the IP is. This should be exercised to prevent several sockpuppeting accounts within a short time.
 * Policy: Users who post information that could identify them in any obscure way are required to, in addition, post their age to verify the legality of posting such information. Ahead of time, new users are reminded that if they identify themselves as under 13 years of age, they will not be allowed to reveal any personal information, but are fully capable and encouraged to continue writing fanon.

This is what I resolve. --C3PO the Dragon Slayer 6,000,000 forms of communication 19:45, 18 April 2007 (UTC)