Should Cortana be Age-Restricted?

Microsoft introduced Cortana to its users as a part of Windows Phone 8.1 last year, and everyone was thrilled with it and the way it works. But Cortana isn’t available to everyone, as only users who are older than 13 are able to use it. And one of the questions that asks itself is, should Cortana be age-restricted?

If your kid is under 13 and he tries to chat with Cortana, he’ll get the following message:”I’m Sorry, you’ll need to be a bit older before I can help you.” I’m sure that your child will be sad because of this, but you’ll have to explain him that it has to be like that. Namely, it’s not Microsoft’s decision to make Cortana unavailable for kids under 13, as the company just has to respect the law.

According to COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998) law, Microsoft, or any other company, web site or online service doesn’t have the right to collect personal info from children who are below 13 years of age. And Microsoft’s Cortana is none other than one big personal data collector. It needs to collect as much of your personal info as possible in order to provide you suitable assistance, and doing that to children who are under 13 violates the foregoing law. And no matter how company is big, it just has to respect the law.

But let’s reasonably think about it, child who is under 13 doesn’t really need a personal assistant. He surely won’t use it to set a reminder for an arranged meeting, or check the traffic. So it is completely alright to have children wait to be a certain age to use a personal assistant like Cortana, because it will help them develop normally, as well as keep their info safe from leaking.

Do you agree with this? Tell us your opinion in the comments.

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