# Does the board verify ages? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 11, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386 "2011-08-11T22:36:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/1 "2011-08-11T22:36:05Z")
Checking the Registration Agreement, I see the minimum age is supposed to be thirteen. Is this run on the honor system or is there a procedure for verifying the age of a poster? There’s at least one regular poster who has implied he registered under the age of thirteen. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2011, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/2 "2011-08-11T23:20:37Z")
Honor system, mostly. If we catch a self-admitted under-13 poster, we will put that person on a suspension that will last until he or she is of age. If you have someone in particular in mind, PM or email an admin ( **TubaDiva, Gfactor, Dex, Lynn** ) with that person’s name. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/3 "2011-08-12T03:48:15Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Honor system, mostly. If we catch a self-admitted under-13 poster, we will put that person on a suspension that will last until he or she is of age. > > If you have someone in particular in mind, PM or email an admin ( **TubaDiva, Gfactor, Dex, Lynn** ) with that person’s name. As far as I know, the poster is currently over thirteen. I base this on his recent statement that he is fourteen. However he has been registered here for over two years, which would imply he was twelve when he registered. Of course, I have no way of knowing if he was lying about his age then or lying about his age now. Or both. Maybe he’s really thirty-five. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/4 "2011-08-12T03:53:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Maybe he’s really thirty-five. Maybe he’s not a he. Tee-hee. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/5 "2011-08-12T06:53:23Z")
I’ve suspended posters that were underage…so a person might have registered when he was 12, and I suspended him for a year. He’d still have a registration date that is earlier than his 13th birthday. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/6 "2011-08-12T17:56:37Z")
Oh heck, we have some who have signed up way early. Coming in August of 2015 … Bomb Bay Doors. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/7 "2011-08-12T18:12:26Z")
It’s pretty obvious who we’re talking about here - I think there is precisely one person on the board whose age is a regular topic of conversation - so yes, given that **Qin Shi Huangdi** recently posted that he’s 14 and he registered in July 2009, he was not complying with our age rules at that time. As far as I can tell, he said he was 13 the first time he mentioned his age on the board. For the most part we can’t verify ages beyond what people report. Looking into a person’s background beyond that is time-consuming and it’s not practical to do that for everybody. In most cases, a 12-year-old writes like a 12-year-old and they’ll often come out and say how old they we. We do suspend those posters, but we don’t spend much time checking to make sure everybody else on the board is a teenager or older. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/8 "2011-08-12T18:24:42Z")
We can be fooled, someone who is precociously literate/smart, we’ve seen that before. Some are long-time posters. \*\* Kyla\*\* (user id 149) comes to mind off the top of my head – she’s been a great poster since the jump, better than a lot of adults I could mention. Still with us, too, which tickles me no end. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/9 "2011-08-12T21:33:49Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > We can be fooled, someone who is precociously literate/smart, we’ve seen that before. > > Some are long-time posters. \*\* Kyla\*\* (user id 149) comes to mind off the top of my head – she’s been a great poster since the jump, better than a lot of adults I could mention. Still with us, too, which tickles me no end. And from the sig, apparently now has a masters. Kids these days! ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/10 "2011-08-12T23:18:49Z")
Not to speak for her, but, I’m pretty sure that **Kyla** was never under 13 for any iteration of the Straight Dope Message Board. Great poster, though, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/11 "2011-08-14T00:51:59Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#): > > We can be fooled, someone who is precociously literate/smart, we’ve seen that before. > > Some are long-time posters. \*\* Kyla\*\* (user id 149) comes to mind off the top of my head – she’s been a great poster since the jump, better than a lot of adults I could mention. Still with us, too, which tickles me no end. FTR, I was nineteen when I started posting at the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-board-verify-ages/592386/12 "2011-08-14T14:20:35Z")
You’re older than I thought! My bad, I’m sorry.