Meta & Children's Online Safety

Documents / Chat: We can't ask if they're under 13 because it means we'd have to delete their account

Chat: We can't ask if they're under 13 because it means we'd have to delete their account

Internal document18 messages4 named participants, plus redacted or unnamed

Narratives:KnowledgeConcealment

Open source PDF (3 pages)

A readable view of the chat, built from the transcribed text. Each row is one timestamped message in the record. Times are Pacific, as recorded. Check the Source PDF for the original layout.

████ name redacted. Different bars may be the same person or different people.

quoted in an excerpt in the archive.

Wednesday 28 October 2020

10:43Kyle Robert Andrewshey peeps, can someone send me our currently approved age question?
10:49Kyle Robert AndrewsMy memory is something like: 13-15 16-18 19-25 26-30 31-45 46+
10:50Kyle Robert AndrewsWe can't give people the ability to say they're under 13, right? So maybe there's also an 'other' category?
10:51Wendy Tegge GrossI've been given a hard no to other category
10:51Wendy Tegge Grossespecially if the upper end is a 46+, since other would, by definition, be under 14
10:51Wendy Tegge Gross*13
10:53Wendy Tegge GrossThe overall guidance I've been given from PXFN is: (1) use "what is your age?" as the stem (2) don't use "other age" as a category, especially if the highest category is "and up" (3) include a "Prefer not to disclose" option
10:59Kyle Robert AndrewsGreat, thanks. So this would be ok: what is your age? -13-15 -16-18 -19-21 -22-26 -27-35 -35-44 -45+ -Prefer not to disclose
11:00Wendy Tegge GrossI've had PXFN approve similar questions in the past, yes
11:00Kyle Robert Andrewsthank you!!
11:01Shilpa Modyexcept 35 is there twice!
11:01Shilpa Modycurrently 35 years old and confused on how to answer your survey q
11:01Kyle Robert Andrewshaha great catch! probably a sign i shouldn't write survey questions live in chat threads
11:15Kyle Robert AndrewsJen and I were just joking that 'just a number' would be a great response option instead of 'prefer not to disclose'
12:42████Would it be ok to let people choose under 13 for off-platform, unbranded surveys (so that they can be terminated)?
14:25Kyle Robert AndrewsHmm, maybe if we're not collecting any identifying info before terminating? My understanding was we can't ask if they're under 13 because it means we'd have to delete their account
15:26████Makes sense. I'm reviewing an off-platform survey asking that, and it's unbranded, so it's not associated with any FB/IG account or collecting any PII. So I guess that is fine.
16:22Dr. Kristin Shay HendrixI just thought it was a "select all that apply" question