There are three answers to your question. I'll give you all three and
then the upshot.
1. There is no official age requirement imposed by ICANN. It is up to
individual registrars to decide. Register.com
(http://www.register.com/service-agreement.cgi) does not provide for a
minimum age.
2. You do have to be able to pay for it, which essentially means you
need access to a credit card (or find a registrar that lets you pay
with money order). In the most states, you need to be 18 to hold your
own credit card, but it is perfectly legal to have a credit card if
you're under 18, if your parent co-signs.
(http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/news/cnfall02/teens.html)
3. A minor child under the age of 18 cannot legally sign any contract
or agreement (except student loans, but that's a different story).
Therefore if you're under 18, you cannot sign the service agreement.
(http://www.scselfservice.org/probate/minor/minorcomp.htm#injured)
This is not a problem for YOU, only for the registrar. YOU could
still enforce the terms against them, as they didn't ask your age, but
they could not enforce the terms against you.
Upshot: If you can pay for it, it is not against the law for YOU to
register a domain name, even if you're 1 year old.
Hope that's good enough. |
