I know that I’m not that mature, but it has been getting boring, and I’m feeling left out on PMU stuff. Apparently, I missed a shiny eevee, and I miss the community. Sort of like PMU sick. I was wondering if you could decrease the ban time. But like this is every going to happen. I will probably delete this post, sooo… 
You know why you were banned, right?
Staff are LEGALLY not allowed to unban you until you are of age. This is not a rule that they made, it is the law. It is a federal law.
I understand that it’s a crappy feeling, but their hands are tied. They are not allowed to under COPPA law, otherwise, they risk hefty fines, and I’m sure I speak for them here, in saying that they’re fines that just aren’t affordable, let alone wanting to take that risk.
YouTube was fined millions for violating this law.
There isn’t any need to make a thread regarding this, you know why.
Once again, they are legally not allowed to, otherwise they are risking hefty fines for doing so, and more likely than not, will result in the entire shut down of PMU.
I’m sorry that it had to be this way, I really am. But the staff team’s hands are tied, there’s nothing they can do without breaking the law.
Yep. “Collection of personal information” got Youtube fined. However, PMU doesn’t really collect personal information, and the things PMU does collect can be legal if notices are given to parents (C5).
Basically, PMU doesn’t collect a a child’s name, home address, telephone number, social security number, geolocation data, photos or videos or audio of a child, or any unique device identifier. And according to COPPA, you can outline in your Privacy Policy and create a Direct Note to Parents about the use of email addresses to activate an account or reset passwords and the use of IP Addresses for banning purposes only. When those things are put in place (especially the Direct Note to Parents), then your game is legal under COPPA rules.
If children are on PMU with the Direct Note to Parents and Private Policy adaptions, the game cannot be fined as it complied with the law. That’s why sites aimed at children like Neopets and PBS Kids were still able to stay alive when the new rules were implemented in 2013. You guys really just gave up a bit too quickly when you heard of Youtube’s COPPA fine. :<
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So If I’m understanding correctly, If PMU’s rules/Privacy Policy were changed to correlate to that, people under 13 would be allowed? I never bothered reading Into COPPA, because I’m going to give my honest point of view and be 100% real here:
I don’t think PMU would have suffered at all because Ocean and her brother were playing. I wasn’t on when It was mentioned but from what I could tell they or one of them just said their age once In-game? Ok, sure. It’s the law I GUESS and I’m not the one running the game here, and like I said I’ve been Ignorant about PMU with age legality since It seemed to have never mattered until that day they got banned, given PMU felt like It was targeted towards younger people as It’s not only a Pokemon game but doesn’t allow swearing ( sort of, but there’s already a topic for that ), but I don’t see how anything would have actually happened. If PMU doesn’t collect any Information It shouldn’t have been an Issue In the first place, no? And again PMU’s staff has never from my recollection actually addressed the target audience. I’ve seen people say that they played PMU back when they were 11 or 12, and you didn’t even need an email until about a year ago. I’m having trouble seeing any legit Issues, so educate me please. Like, I may be wrong but I don’t think PMU’s rules/PP said you had to be 13 or older, I remember It being changed after Ocean and Wise got banned. Maybe the forums said It prior but for forums I think that’d be expected. Regardless If they were considered underage or not, whether It’s law or not, I doubt PMU would have been fined because they said It In the game for a few people to see unless I’m missing something here.
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yeah i almost think if 13yos and under arent allowed on the game you cant keep using the excuse that “the games for kids” and saying stuff like ppl cant swear you cant have it both ways
its a bit malicious to adevrtise ur game as that then ban people for assuming ur game is kid friendly. i agree they cant be on discord but for pmu… i just remember when ocean and wise got banned and people literally yelled at them and mocked them when there was NO WAY they couldve known coppa was a thing until after they were banned afaik id never even heard of COPPA laws
if this is true i think this would be a good thing to consider with pmus policy going fwd
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<3 thank you for understanding bro
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I was pretty intrigued by the possibility of PMU allowing users below the age of 13 while remaining COPPA compliant, because that would be a great situation to strive for. As a result, I did my own (admittedly somewhat rushed) research. At least from what I can understand of Privacy Policy edits, the information requested to be COPPA compliant is pretty extensive. The bolded parts are from my own emphasis:
"Section 312.4(d) of the Rule identifies the three categories of information that you must disclose in your online privacy policy:
- The name, address, telephone number, and email address all operators collecting or maintaining personal information through the site or service (or, after listing all such operators, provide the contact information for one that will handle all inquiries from parents);
- A description of what information the operator collects from children, including whether the operator enables children to make their personal information publicly available, how the operator uses such information, and the operator’s disclosure practices for such information; and
- That the parent can review or have deleted the child’s personal information and refuse to permit its further collection or use. You must also state the procedures for doing so. See 16 C.F.R. § 312.4(d)."
There’s some more written about it here just detailing that it is acceptable to only list that level of data for one person, but everyone else with access to the sort of data covered in COPPA would still have to divulge their real name:
“The Rule provides that, if there are multiple operators collecting information through your site (including via plug-ins), you may list the name, address, phone number, and email address of one operator who will respond to all inquiries from parents regarding all of the operators’ privacy policies and use of children’s information, as long as the names of all the operators are also listed in this online notice.”
I’m personally unsure whether revealing a real life address is a plunge that I would reasonably expect anyone on PMU to be comfortable making and to do so requires a huge amount of courage, especially with some of the events that have happened in this game’s history. And that’s not even getting into the fact that some people might have fairly unique names, wherein just revealing their name is enough to provide all of that information on its own.
If there were a way to, reasonably within the law, allow for PMU to be COPPA compliant with users below the age of 13, I would love to hear it though. I’m also willing to hear if I completely misunderstood what’s going on in that segment.
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Thank you for understanding. :D
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Wait if this topic is closing does that mean??? O.o
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I just read through COPPA laws a bit more carefully, and…
PMU is a nonprofit, free-to-play game. Therefore, it’s not actually subject to COPPA laws. However, it is emphasized to still have a Privacy Policy, which PMU does have. Therefore, PMU was never in danger of being affected by COPPA.
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OMG :D :O! Thank you so much! I really miss PMU!
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So @Andy, there is multiple pieces of evidence that show PMU is safe from COPPA, so I think that it would be reasonable to appeal the ban.
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i agree. pmu is still a pokemon game, so it makes little sense to ban kids from a pokemon game. i also miss you guys.
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That is definitely a big breakthrough. The one thing I wonder here is if by nonprofit it explicitly means those filed as 501c3 or just any website that isn’t taking a profit since legal documents tend to distinguish between the two from my understanding. I’ll have to see if I can find an actual copy of the FTC Act and read more into this, or maybe I’ll ask a friend of mine in law school if he knows lol. Thank you for looking into this - it’s super helpful!
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i hope so. we really want to return.
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Yeah, same. :) I hope the staff understands.
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The staff are somewhat strict
But I’ll happily say that there can never be a finer bunch to run the show round here
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