New feature: parental control

[sourisdudesert]

Dear everyone,

We care about our children, and at BGA we'd like to offer them a safe place to play.

To protect them, we have now a specific status for BGA account own by children under the age of 15.

What are the limits of a "underage" account (<15)?

• Cannot be contacted (private message) by anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot contact (private message) anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot see/speak into the global discussion chat
• Cannot see comments or add comments on newsfeed

In addition, for their own protection, the age of these children is not visible to anyone (except the owner of the account).

We may extend these limits in the future if needed/requested.

What to do if I want to apply these limits to my child?

If you already set the birth date of your child, there is nothing to do: the account is already protected.

If not: from the account of your child, go to Preferences / My Account at set the birth date of your child.

[N_Faker]

Can the birthdate be freely set by users that are currently under the age of 15?

Why 15?

[sourisdudesert]

Can the birthdate be freely set by users that are currently under the age of 15?

For now, yes, we don't control this. Especially because a lot of player set a date of birth by mistake (or for fun) and should not be blocked.

Why 15?

This is the limit for social network usage without authorization in the country were BGA is located (France).

[N_Faker]

What are the limits of a "underage" account (<15)?

• Cannot be contacted (private message) by anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot contact (private message) anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot see/speak into the global discussion chat
• Cannot see comments or add comments on newsfeed

Some users may wish to apply some of these restrictions to their accounts, so I suggest that they be added as toggleable options.

[MoiMagnus]

Some users may wish to apply some of these restrictions to their accounts, so I suggest that they be added as toggleable options.

Agree on that, there should be a toggle for "Cannot be contacted (private message) by anyone else than your friends", which could help peoples fearing to be harassed.
(I remember seeing a post one or two week ago about someone saying that after putting their age and gender on their profile, they were receiving unwanted creepy messages)

[N_Faker]

(I remember seeing a post one or two week ago about someone saying that after putting their age and gender on their profile, they were receiving unwanted creepy messages)

I can confirm that that has happened and that some have suffered from it to an extreme degree.

[Meeplelowda]

What are the limits of a "underage" account (<15)?

• Cannot be contacted (private message) by anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot contact (private message) anyone else than mutual friends
• Cannot see/speak into the global discussion chat
• Cannot see comments or add comments on newsfeed

Some users may wish to apply some of these restrictions to their accounts, so I suggest that they be added as toggleable options.

Agreed. This would be some progress toward addressing privacy issues that have been raised numerous times.

I would add:
"[*] Activity cannot be followed by anyone else than mutual friends" as a toggleable option for those 15 and older.

[compte obelète]

This is the limit for social network usage without authorization in the country were BGA is located (France).

could also depends of the country that the guy is from, but anyway, this website is in France, so the 15 take into account.

[Counternaught]

I have added my child's birthday to their account, so it is a child account now, but it looks like my child could just change the birthday to something older by themself. Is it possible to lock the birthday so it cannot be changed again? Children will figure that out pretty quickly!

[Cullich]

I see a problem with this as well. While it does state that the birthdate will not be public, it says "Used to show your age," which makes it sound like the age is going to be public and show to everyone. That is not very clear. If there is fear the age will be shown, people may just not use it.

Be clear that neither will be shown and it's to determine (not "show") age in order to allow for parental controls. Although it doesn't really sound like the parent has any actual control.