User:6SJ7/Proposed Child information policy

Note: Compare with Wikipedia:Protecting children's privacy

Overview

Wikipedia is open to editing by users of any age, providing that they conduct themselves in accordance with the purposes of the encyclopedia project and the standards of the Wikipedia community. This raises several issues, two of which are:

• Appropriateness of content: As stated in its general content disclaimer, Wikipedia contains images and text that some users find offensive. Wikipedia is not censored, either for the protection of children or anyone else. Parents of minors may wish to prohibit their children from using Wikipedia, or they may wish to limit, restrict or monitor that use, in keeping with their own family standards. While there have been occasional proposals to provide "content warnings" for specific images and articles, the difficulties of determining the appropriate use of such disclaimers have prevented the adoption of any such system.

• Disclosure of information: Wikipedia does not ask its users (editors) to state their age or any other personal identifying information, either upon registration or at any other time. However, as noted at Wikipedia:User page, some users include personal identifying information on their User Page, "possibly including contact information (email, instant messaging, etc), a photograph, their real name, their location, information about their areas of expertise and interest, likes and dislikes, homepages, and so forth. (NB: If you are concerned with privacy, you may not want to emulate this.)" Sometimes, a user may also disclose some personal identifying information other than on their user page, such as on a discussion page. This disclosure raises special concerns in terms of Wikipedia's younger users, particularly when the user identifies himself or herself as being below a particular age. Unfortunately, some younger users have occasionally confused Wikipedia with one of the popular "social networking" sites, and this has resulted in the disclosure of certain information as well as other conduct that is inappropriate for the project of building an encyclopedia.

The policy

In order to balance the privacy interests of our younger users with their ability to use Wikipedia (when so permitted by their parents or guaradians), Wikipedia has adopted the following rules:

• No editor who identifies themself (or has in the past identified themself) as being below the age of 13 shall post any personal identifying information about themselves.
• "Personal identifying information", for purposes of this policy, includes:

Real last name (surname)

Telephone number

Home address

E-mail address and IM screen name

Date of birth

School name

Photographs that include any of this information

• A user below the age of 13 should not post a photograph of himself or herself on Wikipedia. If such a photo is or has been posted, and the photo clearly depicts a person below the age of 13, the the user should be considered a self-identified under-13 user regardless of whether he or she has acutally specified his or her age.
• Similarly, a user who posts information about his or her grade level in school, or name or characteristics of that school or other activities, that indicate that the user is below the age of 13, will be considered a under-13 user regardless of whether he or she has acutally specified his or her age.
• In keeping with the above regulation, no self-identified under-13 user shall edit under a user name that contains their last name (or surname).
• No editor (of any age) should post personal identifying information about a self-identified under-13 user, nor should any user seek to elicit any personal information from any self-identified under-13 user.

Enforcement of this policy

• Personal identifying information added by a self-identified under-13 user shall be deleted, and any editor is free to do so regardless of where on Wikipedia the information is located. When possible, Wikipedia:Oversight should be used to permanently remove the information from public view.
• A user who posts such information should be given a warning on their talk page, which shall include the fact that the material has been deleted, a link to this policy page, and a reminder that Wikipedia is not a social networking site. The wording of this warning should be in compliance with Wikipedia:Don't bite the newcomers and the apparent age of the recipient.
• In cases of repeated posting of personal information, child editors may be briefly blocked, escalating to a ban under extreme circumstances.
• Any editor who attempts to elicit personal information from a child shall receive a warning, and in cases of repeated attempts, such editors may be blocked and possibly face further sanction.

Comments

• Editors of all ages who edit constructively and within the bounds of policy are encouraged to continue to edit Wikipedia; this policy in no way is meant to discourage such editors from contributing to the project.
• The age of 13, while somewhat arbitrary, has its basis in certain statutes adopted in the United States and other countries, with the intention of protecting children. One of these is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. However, it should be noted that this policy has not been adopted for legal reasons, which are within the province of the Wikimedia Foundation. The disclosure of personal information regarding users who are (or may be) under the age of 13 is being prohibited for moral and ethical reasons, to protect children.
• It should be remembered that someone who identifies himself or herself as being below the age of 13 may not necessarily be of that age. Self-identified children could be children, adult predators, trolls, adult privacy-watchers testing our policies, or law enforcement personnel. Nevertheless, in order for this policy to provide some protection for childrens' privacy interests, it applies to all self-identified children regardless of ther actual age.
• The above definition of "personal identifying information" is intended to include all information that a reader could use to discover the identity and real world location of a child.
• This policy does not apply to child Wikipedians who do not self-identify as children, as we have no way of knowing anyone's age except their own statements.
• Without other information, a first name is not considered personal identifying information.
• Similarly, without other information, a general location (e.g. Chicago, Illinois or Liverpool) is not considered personal identifying information