I was recently going over some ideas for a minor upgrade to one of my websites, and I wanted to know some details about making a site that is safe for kids, yet allows users to view all content if they accept an agreement.
What I would like to do is going to take a lot of enhancement, but in the end I hope that it is worth all of the trouble... so, that's why I am asking if anybody has explicit recommendations or experience with something like this.
The usual warning message that appears usually says something like:
I would like to allow the user to use the site even if they might not be 18 years old. It can be done, but I would have to rewrite lots of code and add new code in other places. The new warning message would be something more like:
This method would use a cookie to set the user's date of birth (following the "FILTER OFFENSIVE CONTENT" link would take them to the form to enter their DOB) - so that they will automatically be promoted on their 18th birthday to be able to view the content that wasn't kid-safe. If the cookie is not there when the user comes (or returns) to the site, they will have to select their option from the warning message before viewing any page.
Questions:
What I would like to do is going to take a lot of enhancement, but in the end I hope that it is worth all of the trouble... so, that's why I am asking if anybody has explicit recommendations or experience with something like this.
The usual warning message that appears usually says something like:
| Quote: |
| WARNING
You are about to enter a site that might contain insert your offensive type of content here. These are uploaded by users of yourwebsite.com, if insert description of potentially offensive content bothers you, click EXIT NOW below. By clicking ENTER, you are affirming that you are now currently over the age of 18 years old. If you are not of legal age exit now! EXIT NOW ... ENTER |
I would like to allow the user to use the site even if they might not be 18 years old. It can be done, but I would have to rewrite lots of code and add new code in other places. The new warning message would be something more like:
| Quote: |
| WARNING
You are about to enter a site that might contain insert your offensive type of content here. These are uploaded by users of yourwebsite.com, if you would not like to see insert description of potentially offensive content, you can either click EXIT NOW or FILTER OFFENSIVE CONTENT below. By clicking ENTER, you are affirming that you are now currently over the age of 18 years old. If you are not 18 years old, you should use the FILTER OFFENSIVE CONTENT button to view a subset of our content that may not be as objectionable for younger users. EXIT NOW ... ENTER ... FILTER OFFENSIVE CONTENT Important notice: it is impossible to identify all offensive content without manual review. For this reason, we trust the submitter to flag their content as adult when they submit new content. Our pages also have a way for the user to notify us if they find a page that should be marked as adult but wasn't. |
This method would use a cookie to set the user's date of birth (following the "FILTER OFFENSIVE CONTENT" link would take them to the form to enter their DOB) - so that they will automatically be promoted on their 18th birthday to be able to view the content that wasn't kid-safe. If the cookie is not there when the user comes (or returns) to the site, they will have to select their option from the warning message before viewing any page.
Questions:
- Does this cause problems for search engines? The code would obviously have to allow SE bots to index all content (regardless of the BOT's age ... and I am guessing that they are all less than 18 years old
)
- Does this type of feature really add a lot to a site's value?
- Legal question -- We're safe as long as the warning message claims that we can't guarantee that all offensive content can be blocked - right?
- Are there language standards that I could apply to my existing content descriptions, forum posts, comments, etc -- that would be able to dynamically flag which page may be unsafe for kids?
