students under the age of 13

Is there a way for students under the age of 13 to use this site or do you have a partner site or and educational site that will allow that? Since the user agreement says that they can't use under the age of 13.
Thanks

I agree that this is a problem. I can imagine many educational uses in our K-5 schools but the age 13 restriction, which our district takes seriously, prevents us from using this. Can this age limit be dropped or an edu side be created?

Might there be a way to have student accounts as sub-accounts under the teacher account so that the teacher can monitor the student projects?

I have used this site with 3rd and 4th graders (8-10 year olds), but they do not save their avatars. When they have finished creating their avatar, I have them copy and paste the embed code on a word document saved as their name so I can go back and embed them on our school website or wiki. I would like for them to be able to save their avatars, but that would require a teacher account set up like Glogster has. That would be a nice feature to see - a teacher account with teacher-generated student accounts tied to it.

I agree with GCTech - most of my students don't make an account. However, having an account is helpful if they have tech problems and need to edit their audio or re-try posting it because it didn't work the first time. Good suggestions.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 01/02/2011 02:52:13

Hi All - these are all good suggestions and we know that it will definitely help to have "student" or "school" accounts.
We have this listed as one of our top feature requests.

We take child privacy laws very seriously. Many of you will be familiar with COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act). Per COPPA, we are currently unable to knowingly collect any private info from children under 13.

Meanwhile, we have heard from many educators using various work-arounds for this issue. Some of these include "class accounts" (where a teacher might create an account and log students in during class), "parent accounts" (created by parents, with their emails and passwords, who could then supervise/ monitor Voki use), and so on. Some teachers have sent a note home requesting that parents both give permission, and create an account with their children that they could monitor.

We'll be sure to let everyone know when we are able to either create school/ class accounts, or officially accommodate children under 13.

Thanks for your support!

I agree the under 13 ruling is prohibitive for my students as wel. To allow them to use VOKI sends the wrong message about correct online beahviours. All the other sideways suggestions from these posts just make it more work fro good teachers. Would it be possible to have an option to register as under 13 as you can for some other internet options. If Voki want to promote it for education perhaps the option for an under 13 user with resticted options may be the go if they want teachers to use it.