Changes coming to minimum age requirement for park entry

Prince-1

Prince-1

Well-Known Member
WDW1974 said:
So ... what about the blockheads that send their kids miles away on subways and city buses? Or walking miles to/from schools/activities? Countless kids do it daily in rough cities, rough 'hoods.

Yet, at WDW, which still is an extremely safe place, a few kids going off on their own is cause for alarm.

No wonder why we have 27 and 31-year-olds that are like children in the workplace and real world. They were never let off the leash. There is NOTHING wrong with kids doing their own thing (provided on their maturity and how good they've been parented) at WDW. And it's been going on for decades.
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Letting a 7 or 8 year old "off the leash" at WDW is so beyond bad parenting it isn't even funny. I agree that WDW is a safe place but no parent in their right mind would ever drop little Johnny or Jane off at the front door and say, "See you in 5 hours, have fun, and don't forget to get a Turkey leg". I also agree that parents coddle and baby their kids these days but not letting your child wander alone does not make them dependent grown-ups. Sorry horrible thought process there but each to his own. Now I can see an argument be made that kids at 12 and up are able to walk by themselves but uner 10?!?!
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
I_heart_Tigger said:
I skimmed through the posts and do that many of you actually think there was ever a time where Disney permitted a 6 year old to enter the park by themselves? Did you not actually read the (incredibly short) article? Maybe focus on the line that reads, "Currently, the policy is that guests under 7 years of age must be accompanied by a guest age 14 or older."
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No, but there was a time (right now, until the age change) that they would allow a 7 year old to enter the park entirely by himself. That IMHO is too young and changing the minimum age of entry without supervision make a lot of sense.

Now, some may very well quibble whether the age should have been changed to 14. I personally don't dispute that and feel that 14 is older than needed for a person to be enter without supervision. Off hand, I would have made the cut off 12 years old. I could see a reasonable argument for 10 or 11 years old, though I wouldn't pick it. But once you get down to 8 or 9, I don't see any justification for having rules that allow children that young to be able to enter the parks alone, unsupervised.

I realize that in most cases where an 8 year old was entering the parks without a parent, they were probably doing so with older siblings or friends. Still, that's irrelevent, since we are looking at what is the rule as to what is allowed and it's allowed that a 7 year old could walk into the MK without anyone else. Whether that happens much is not the issue, whether it is allowed is. Changing that to a higher age is jsutified.
 
Shadowgate

Shadowgate

Active Member
Whatever your arguement on this you have to admit it is VERY coincidenetal that this is being change just as next gen is being phased in. Yes, it may not fully deflect COPPA but you can see that it could be used as part of what Disney's lawyers to try to use to make an arguement that they aren't in breach of COPPA if they get called on the carpet on this. I don't think that Disney is, at this point, feeling that this will blow over and that they will not be challenged further on next gen.
 
articos

articos

Well-Known Member
C

COProgressFan

Well-Known Member
Shadowgate said:
Whatever your arguement on this you have to admit it is VERY coincidenetal that this is being change just as next gen is being phased in. Yes, it may not fully deflect COPPA but you can see that it could be used as part of what Disney's lawyers to try to use to make an arguement that they aren't in breach of COPPA if they get called on the carpet on this. I don't think that Disney is, at this point, feeling that this will blow over and that they will not be challenged further on next gen.
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Given the circumstances, I'm sure many find it to be much more than coincidental (myself included).

If you've been following the story of MM+/Nextgen/COPPA, etc., it is certainly likely to be related. (Waiting for the "tin foil hat" accusers to come out...)
 
freediverdude

freediverdude

Well-Known Member
Well, the people talking about COPPA may have a point. 14 does seem like an arbitrary age cutoff, how would they just come up with that? Why 14, when it doesn't tie in with any of their other age categories, like adult for tickets, adult for hotel reservations, adult for dining plan? COPPA does seem to be the only thing that would dictate that particular age, unless they just came up with it out of the blue.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
freediverdude said:
Well, the people talking about COPPA may have a point. 14 does seem like an arbitrary age cutoff, how would they just come up with that? Why 14, when it doesn't tie in with any of their other age categories, like adult for tickets, adult for hotel reservations, adult for dining plan? COPPA does seem to be the only thing that would dictate that particular age, unless they just came up with it out of the blue.
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Well for instance the article quoted that 14 is the age the red cross recommends for babysitting.. and mentioned consensus from other solicitation.

Reasons why this isn't COPPA related..
  • Age 14 does not make sense for COPPA... if it were, the age would be 13, not 14. COPPA limits people UNDER age 13.. not age 13.
  • A person age 14 does not meet the requirements of consent for someone under age 13 in COPPA. So if Disney were saying 'we can't let you in because of COPPA' - Disney's own standard for consent to allow the under the limit person in does not meet COPPA's requirements
 
WDW1974

WDW1974

Well-Known Member
Again, just like som folks believe WDW has never been better, I'll go on believing this has to do with COPPA and/or other possible legalities.

I feel I'm standing on harder ground than the first group, which is sinking in Florida quicksand!
 
ttalovebug

ttalovebug

Active Member
I can't believe so many are shocked at the idea of kids entering the parks on their own. My siblings and I would sometimes go into a park without one of ourparents when I was 13, my sister was 12, and my brother 8 years old. Usually, we were not alone all day, we were just ahead of my parents. But we had the option. And we didn't go running around terrorizing adults for the fun of it, as so many seem to believe children do. We just wanted to do some rides!

I could envision a situation where a few 12 or 13 years olds staying on the monorail line resorts would want to hop over to MK when their parents wanted to chill.

I don't think this will be a huge deal in the long run, though.
 
unkadug

unkadug

Follower of "Saget"The Cult
ttalovebug said:
I can't believe so many are shocked at the idea of kids entering the parks on their own. My siblings and I would sometimes go into a park without one of ourparents when I was 13, my sister was 12, and my brother 8 years old. Usually, we were not alone all day, we were just ahead of my parents. But we had the option. And we didn't go running around terrorizing adults for the fun of it, as so many seem to believe children do. We just wanted to do some rides!

I could envision a situation where a few 12 or 13 years olds staying on the monorail line resorts would want to hop over to MK when their parents wanted to chill.

I don't think this will be a huge deal in the long run, though.
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No misbehaving child ever thinks they are misbehaving.
 
D

doctornick

Well-Known Member
ttalovebug said:
I can't believe so many are shocked at the idea of kids entering the parks on their own. My siblings and I would sometimes go into a park without one of ourparents when I was 13, my sister was 12, and my brother 8 years old. Usually, we were not alone all day, we were just ahead of my parents. But we had the option. And we didn't go running around terrorizing adults for the fun of it, as so many seem to believe children do. We just wanted to do some rides!

I could envision a situation where a few 12 or 13 years olds staying on the monorail line resorts would want to hop over to MK when their parents wanted to chill.

I don't think this will be a huge deal in the long run, though.
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If you were one year older, then this scenario could still happen under the current rules.

That said, the big point for me in your story is that two of the people were 12 and 13. I've even said I would make the minimal age to enter alone be 12 and I think most 12 year olds would be perfectly fine. The crazy thing to me is the point that a 7 year old could enter by themselves. Do you think it would have been ago for your younger bother to enter on his own in the above scenario? I don't.

Children can and should be able to enter the parks without an adult, but I think it's more than reasonable to expect that someone in the party would be at least double digits in age (again, I would make the cutoff 12, not 14, but I agree with the principle of a higher minimal age for entry).
 
AngryEyes

AngryEyes

Well-Known Member
unkadug said:
No misbehaving child ever thinks they are misbehaving.
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That's absolutely untrue. I always knew when I was misbehaving. Some kids don't know right from wrong, for sure, but those kids are going to be little brats with or without the parents there.

On the "age to enter the parks" subject, I'm not generally a fan of any hard & fast age rule when it comes to children. I've never done it, but I would have let either/both of my sons go into/around the park for a limited time alone when they were 10-ish, even before cell phones (digital leashes). They're very responsible boys and would have behaved and toured successfully and then met me wherever they were supposed to exactly when they were supposed to. I have no doubt of that.
My daughter, on the other hand...she's 19 and still might not be mature enough to handle touring alone. She'd end up stuck under a parade float or something.
 
C

COProgressFan

Well-Known Member
ttalovebug said:
I could envision a situation where a few 12 or 13 years olds staying on the monorail line resorts would want to hop over to MK when their parents wanted to chill.
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Did this many times as a child. Especially when the youngest of us went back to the Poly with my parents at night, and my older brother and I stayed late to ride Space, Big Thunder, etc. as the lines got shorter toward park close time.

And we didn't misbehave, or get abducted or molested. Amazing, isn't it!?

In fact, it's kind of funny, my parents always said we were the most behaved while at WDW, we didn't fight with eachother, etc. I guess were having too much fun to argue. It's a rare day in the MK today where you don't see frequently family meltdowns/arguments etc. Maybe our national culture has changed, but maybe the culture of WDW has changed too...("we paid a lot of money for this vacation and we're going to see everything and you're going to like it!")
 

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