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A Fairer Deal for Younger Players?
Written by NeoMoaner
COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Act) prohibits the storage or use of personal information from children under the age of 13, and the use of message boards.I, myself, am 12, and I have only ever seen the neoboards in
screenshots, or when watching my friend on his account. This is understandable, nevertheless
annoying to the band of children that this applies to.
However, recently the 'Edit' button for pet pages disappeared. I was annoyed by this, as I was updating my Kyrii?s page at the time, hoping to win a
site spotlight. Now that dream is shattered.
Shortly after, my 'Break The Chain' ad in my shop was replaced by a red X. Wondering why, I ventured into shop properties, and found that the previously
HTML-enabled box had been replaced by a dropdown list of corny presets. So much for a guild ad, a background (I had a really nice background on
there at the time) or a cursor.
As these things were enabled for me at the start, then there is virtually no doubt that COPPA allowed these things, but the privileges were taken
away. They may be taken for granted by the players who are 13 and over, but I must say, instead of my shop layout, guild ad and a chain letters
banner, this sentence is all there is. 'Darigan shall rule again. I have created this shop/gallery in honour of
his great rule.'
It was the best one in there. And I don't like it.
Hopefully, one day, the Neopets team may choose to give these things back. Until then, I will just have to play with these restrictions until my next
birthday.
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