Dealing with children on the FCB Transactions board

Let me get this out of the way:
This hobby needs more kids, and it's awesome that they participate on this board.

That said, is there a way to know if we're dealing with a child or adult when making trades or sales on FCB's transactions board?

A thread was recently made in which an adult member was not paid in a timely matter, nor did he receive any communication from the other member.

It ended up being a 14-year-old boy who did not understand the importance of communication when making a deal. Kind of understandable for a 14-year-old, since they don't have much experience handling online transactions. And he did end up sending payment after a couple weeks.

I have enough apprehension dealing online with many adults, who can be scammers and thieves. But I would definitely want to know if I'm making a big money transaction with a child.

This is certainly not a child-bashing thread. I wish this board and the hobby had much more of them. And they should be able to trade just like the rest of us.

However, I would like to know that if I'm sending a $500 card to someone, it's an adult and not a kid who has no legal responsibility if something goes wrong.

And what are the possible legal ramifications of dealing large amounts of money with underaged children without parents' consent?

On eBay, it says members must be 18 years old and has the following reason:

"When eBay members agree to buy or sell items, they are entering into contracts with each other. In most countries, you must be at least 18 years old to enter into a contract."

Easy answer is to not deal with anyone that doesn't have an established history. Even if we made people agree to being a certain age, it'd be near impossible to enforce it in transactions.
Best thing you can do is ask for references in high dollar deals since most members here have some sort of trading history SOMEWHERE on the web. If a deal goes south, report them.

A_Pharis said:

Easy answer is to not deal with anyone that doesn't have an established history. Even if we made people agree to being a certain age, it'd be near impossible to enforce it in transactions.
Best thing you can do is ask for references in high dollar deals since most members here have some sort of trading history SOMEWHERE on the web. If a deal goes south, report them.

Click to expand...

And ask for there credit score too
:lol:

A_Pharis said:

Easy answer is to not deal with anyone that doesn't have an established history. Even if we made people agree to being a certain age, it'd be near impossible to enforce it in transactions.
Best thing you can do is ask for references in high dollar deals since most members here have some sort of trading history SOMEWHERE on the web. If a deal goes south, report them.

Click to expand...

Yes, I understand that.
But what about the legal ramifications of dealing with large amounts of money with children?

eBay has the following rule:

You must be at least 18 years old to be an eBay member.

A person under 18 can use an adult's account with the permission of the account holder.
However, the account holder is responsible for everything done with that account.

Make sure you follow these guidelines. If you don’t, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

If you think another member is under 18, please report them to us. Make sure to include any relevant information about why you think the member is underage. If you have an email from the member, please be sure to include a copy of it.

When eBay members agree to buy or sell items, they are entering into contracts with each other. In most countries, you must be at least 18 years old to enter into a contract.

Austin said:

Yes, I understand that.
But what about the legal ramifications of dealing with large amounts of money with children?

eBay has the following rule:

You must be at least 18 years old to be an eBay member.

A person under 18 can use an adult's account with the permission of the account holder.
However, the account holder is responsible for everything done with that account.

Make sure you follow these guidelines. If you don’t, you may be subject to a range of actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

If you think another member is under 18, please report them to us. Make sure to include any relevant information about why you think the member is underage. If you have an email from the member, please be sure to include a copy of it.

Click to expand...

There's no way for us to actually verify user age prior to it becoming public knowledge by means not of our own.
Any sort of legalities would fall upon their guardians. If you have a major issue, you have their address and their parents can be held liable.

I thought if you were 13 or younger you had to have your parents sign some kind of form BEFORE you even sign up for a trading website such as FCB?

BiggioBrooks755 said:

I thought if you were 13 or younger you had to have your parents sign some kind of form BEFORE you even sign up for a trading website such as FCB?

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We actually have it in our TOS and is enforced if someone is found to be younger.

BiggioBrooks755 said:

I thought if you were 13 or younger you had to have your parents sign some kind of form BEFORE you even sign up for a trading website such as FCB?

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nearly impossible to enforce


Communities like this are based on faith and reasoning.


Just take steps to protect yourself. Making a big trade, talk to them on the phone first. Sending paypal, don't send gift.

I would just like to say that there should never be a system implemented that shows ages to all the users.

I'm not saying there are any child predators on FCB, but there are millions of them on the internet. And everyone knowing someone's a 14 year old boy isn't a good thing.



I would say, if someone's worried about dealing with someone, then go by their transaction history.

And also remember, we all started somewhere.