I made this account years ago, and was not eligible for open chat. I am now older and should be able to have open chat but that option is not available to me. How do I get open chat?
I made this account years ago, and was not eligible for open chat. I am now older and should be able to have open chat but that option is not available to me. How do I get open chat?
If you were over 13 when you made the account all that is required for open chat is for the account to show you are now over 18 and have made a card payment (debit/credit card). The option will be found in your settings when these criteria are met.
Unfotunately if you were under 13 when you made the account open chat will not become an option. It's not a decision by KI to do this, it's a consequence of a piece of federal legislation. COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) prevents companies from storing data relating to those under 13. It is a violation of the law to even attempt to determine the age of a customer/user 'protected' by COPPA.
Sadly, far from 'protecting', in practise COPPA only serves to inhibit and exclude young people (most companies/sites have responded to this by banning under 13's) and to make money from reputable companies (expense of ensuing COPPA compliance, exorbitant fines if they make a mistake).
If you were over 13 and have met the criteria (have made a payment by debit/credit card) then you could send a message to support to find out if it has glitched in some way. If they say your account is unable to obtain open chat please don't be angry with them, they are making sure they are compliant with legislation.
I hope this helps and I hope you are able to get open chat
If you were over 13 when you made the account all that is required for open chat is for the account to show you are now over 18 and have made a card payment (debit/credit card). The option will be found in your settings when these criteria are met.
Unfotunately if you were under 13 when you made the account open chat will not become an option. It's not a decision by KI to do this, it's a consequence of a piece of federal legislation. COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) prevents companies from storing data relating to those under 13. It is a violation of the law to even attempt to determine the age of a customer/user 'protected' by COPPA.
Sadly, far from 'protecting', in practise COPPA only serves to inhibit and exclude young people (most companies/sites have responded to this by banning under 13's) and to make money from reputable companies (expense of ensuing COPPA compliance, exorbitant fines if they make a mistake).
If you were over 13 and have met the criteria (have made a payment by debit/credit card) then you could send a message to support to find out if it has glitched in some way. If they say your account is unable to obtain open chat please don't be angry with them, they are making sure they are compliant with legislation.
I hope this helps and I hope you are able to get open chat
I feel COPPA needs to get their act together and start trusting online gaming Businesses to protect the younger kids before they drive every MMO games out of Business which woud be their fault if it happens. It's almost 2020. I'm sure the technology is available that gaming Businesses are perfectly able to satisfy the Goverment without have their hand held.
People always say you had to be 13 or older when you made your account. However my son was 10 when I made his and I was able to get open chat when he turned 18.
Maybe we made the account before the new guidelines were out and he was 13 or older at that time, I do not really know.
People always say you had to be 13 or older when you made your account. However my son was 10 when I made his and I was able to get open chat when he turned 18.
Maybe we made the account before the new guidelines were out and he was 13 or older at that time, I do not really know.
It's likely that your son (luckily) fell through the gap before the 2013 revisions were made to COPPA legislation. The revisions added in rules expanding what constituted 'data collection' and also added rules regarding data retention and enforced deletion of data as soon as it was used for the purpose it was collected.
In the example of KI, the purpose of knowing a player's age is to determine whether they are legally required to gain parental consent (particularly for certain features eg earn crowns videos, chat level etc). Once they have fulfilled that 'purpose' they are legally required to delete the data...they are not allowed to keep it for possible further purposes eg open chat...even if we WANT them to and consent to it!
TBH compliance with this legislation is a minefield and I can see why so many companies just avoid it completely by banning anyone under 13 from accessing their site etc. Just this past February ByteDance was fined $5.7 MILLION for failure to comply with COPPA!
IMO KI have handled COPPA compliance and E10 regulations really effectively and well. They're really doing everything they can to give their customers as much as possible while also protecting the company from potentially massive fines.
I feel COPPA needs to get their act together and start trusting online gaming Businesses to protect the younger kids before they drive every MMO games out of Business which woud be their fault if it happens. It's almost 2020. I'm sure the technology is available that gaming Businesses are perfectly able to satisfy the Goverment without have their hand held.
It needs a complete overhaul IMO.
It was written in 1998, updates in 2013 just made it even more about making money from it instead of any kind of privacy protection. It's possibly in violation of discrimination laws - age and disability (it applies to children with disabilities even when over 13, though this is usually impossible to determine without violating COPPA by asking personal questions that are not directly relevant to site use).
The bigger issues are not things like open chat, none of the big issues relate to KI or W101 in any way. A huge issue is access to online learning and how a company providing educational resources can struggle to obtain 'verifiable parental consent' or serve their purpose effectively without the ability to store data.
Not to mention the inability to access media pertaining to current affairs, join in discussion or debate...in many cases they can't even legally read online discussions, articles etc.
But none of this applies to KI...so I should stop ranting now
PS. @Jasmine I forgot to add that the OP made their account in Nov 2013 and was after the 2013 revisions so being over/under 13 at that time would likely apply.
It was written in 1998, updates in 2013 just made it even more about making money from it instead of any kind of privacy protection. It's possibly in violation of discrimination laws - age and disability (it applies to children with disabilities even when over 13, though this is usually impossible to determine without violating COPPA by asking personal questions that are not directly relevant to site use).
The bigger issues are not things like open chat, none of the big issues relate to KI or W101 in any way. A huge issue is access to online learning and how a company providing educational resources can struggle to obtain 'verifiable parental consent' or serve their purpose effectively without the ability to store data.
Not to mention the inability to access media pertaining to current affairs, join in discussion or debate...in many cases they can't even legally read online discussions, articles etc.
But none of this applies to KI...so I should stop ranting now
PS. @Jasmine I forgot to add that the OP made their account in Nov 2013 and was after the 2013 revisions so being over/under 13 at that time would likely apply.
I made my original account back in 2009, but sadly lost the password.
It was written in 1998, updates in 2013 just made it even more about making money from it instead of any kind of privacy protection. It's possibly in violation of discrimination laws - age and disability (it applies to children with disabilities even when over 13, though this is usually impossible to determine without violating COPPA by asking personal questions that are not directly relevant to site use).
The bigger issues are not things like open chat, none of the big issues relate to KI or W101 in any way. A huge issue is access to online learning and how a company providing educational resources can struggle to obtain 'verifiable parental consent' or serve their purpose effectively without the ability to store data.
Not to mention the inability to access media pertaining to current affairs, join in discussion or debate...in many cases they can't even legally read online discussions, articles etc.
But none of this applies to KI...so I should stop ranting now
PS. @Jasmine I forgot to add that the OP made their account in Nov 2013 and was after the 2013 revisions so being over/under 13 at that time would likely apply.
Does this mean that if my account was created before 2013, I can simply send a support ticket to activate Open Chat?
Does this mean that if my account was created before 2013, I can simply send a support ticket to activate Open Chat?
Unfortunately it's not that simple, it's how some customers may have slipped between the legislative changes, explaining how they could have obtained open chat due to their date of birth in relation to the 2013 revisions.
Prior to 2013 there were not the same rules on deletion of data. KI would have been able to keep the date of birth in their system without breaching COPPA. After the 2013 revisions companies were not allowed to store data once the purpose for collection was fulfilled. Deleting the date of birth became a COPPA requirement.
There will be some people who made their accounts before the regulations changed whose date of birth was able to be stored and their accounts would have been able to be 'un-protected' once they were over 13. Post 1st July 2013 the date of birth had to be deleted for anyone under 13, therefore they can never become 'unprotected' by COPPA because companies can not store the data, nor can they legally attempt to work out the age of a protected customer.
This is a logical explanation behind the situation of those making an account when they were under 13 'never being eligible for open chat', but also the seeming anomaly of some people having made the account under 13 finding their account is eligible.
Please note that I do not work for KI and they may have started data deletion in anticipation of the new legislative changes to ensure they did not breach them once they were active. The open chat option should automatically appear in the settings when the account qualifies. If we want open chat and believe the option should have appeared but hasn't, we can contact support who will be able to look into it and let us know the status of the account. Just understand that if they say it will never be eligible it's not their fault or even their choice...and it's not something they can go into the system and 'fix' for us.
