Oh, very interesting. GitHub updated their terms and conditions to make them more user-friendly, hence they are more practically enforcable.
20180516/https://help.github.com/articles/github-terms-of-service/
Oh, I didn’t know there were special U.S. laws rendering complications for web service operators when people under the age of 13 are involved. What is that law, anyways? Oh, this. Yep, definitely written with a one-sided mindset. And for GitHub’s side, they don’t want anything to do with those more complicated legalese, especially getting in trouble for not following them. Indeed! If you read their terms and conditions, they don’t say that users under 13 are prohibited from using Internet services in general; they just say that they do not target their service to users under 13, and as a convenient way to escape potential legal liability, they forbid such users in their agreement, even though it is totally legally possible.
- Footnote: Again, I reiterate, because this is important! But, the really interesting thing about all such laws that pertain to people under 13 years of age. In only a few years after any such legal dispute, the dispute will be irrelevant because the person in question will no longer be a member of the prohibited group. And you know the way legal disputes are: one year is considered “fast.” The 18 years of age laws have a little bit more legal wiggle room for disputes before they become obsolete. Ultimately, we must all agree that none of these laws are really… are really all that enforceable, but are written upon the assumption that people will avoid disputes to begin with.
20180516/DuckDuckGo united states law minimum age 13 internet
20180516/https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/rules/rulemaking-regulatory-reform-proceedings/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule
20180516/https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=4939e77c77a1a1a08c1cbf905fc4b409&node=16%3A1.0.1.3.36&rgn=div5