Apply 13+ age limit to account holders, not anonymous visitors

[wking]

1. What's the name of the policy?

GitHub Terms of Service

2. Is this issue related to a specific section within one of our policies (e.g. the Terms of Service)? If so, please include a link to the section or subsection.

§A (Definitions).

3. Did you already open a pull request? If so, please include a link to the PR.

No.

4. Sometimes it's easier to just put your feedback text into an issue. If that's how you'd prefer to contribute, this is the section to do that.

I'd like to see the current:

A User must be at least 13 years of age.

changed to:

A User must be at least 13 years of age to hold an account.

5. Why do you think this section or language needs improvement?

The current terms define “User” in part as:

…the individual person… that has visited or is using the Website or Service; …; or …

So you may be a User even if you don't have a GitHub account. While most of these terms may not apply to these anonymous users, they are the recipient of other grants (e.g. they are granted the right to view public repositories, see #57). And they are still subject to overuse restrictions and such.

The 13+ age limit is intended to avoid COPPA requirements by forbidding minors from opening GitHub accounts (see here and here). I'm not familiar with COPPA, so it's possible that collecting IP address in HTTP logs or using cookies with anonymous users is enough interaction to trigger COPPA conditions. In that case, you'd want to keep the current language (blocking minors from accessing GitHub entirely). But if anonymous GitHub access is sufficiently anonymous for COPPA, then the ToS should allow anonymous minors to browse the Website and Service, and only forbid them from opening accounts.

[nsqe]

I'm not familiar with COPPA, so it's possible that collecting IP address in HTTP logs or using cookies with anonymous users is enough interaction to trigger COPPA conditions. In that case, you'd want to keep the current language (blocking minors from accessing GitHub entirely).

That is correct. Collecting IP addresses can be enough to trigger COPPA conditions.