Why can't grandparents add a profile?

Question

I have five living grandchildren. I can't add them as children or siblings to profiles that I manage, because I am not their parent. I can't even create parentless unlisted profiles for them without lying about their ages, or change the spurious age to the correct one after creating such a spurious profile.

None of the parents are Wikitreers. Their children keep them too busy. So they are not going to add those grandchildren of mine anytime soon.

Can't we relax the simplistic rule that only a parent can create unlisted profiles for juveniles to cover the case of a grandparent who manages that parent's profile?

Comments

Dirk, why is it important for you to list your minor-age grandchildren on WikiTree?

For the purposes of documenting the living family members in my own tree, I use my offline software program from which I can generate charts and trees and other things while at the same time maintaining the privacy of all living members of my family. With a very few exceptions, I exclude all living members of my family from WikiTree, including adults.

Answer 1

To those who read this, what Dirk did is a violation of our privacy policy.  Please do not try to, in his words, subterfuge our rules and policies. They exist for important reasons not just because we felt like implementing them for the heck of it.

Thanks!

Answer 2

Due to privacy laws of the European Union (GDPR), only the children themselves or their parents may add their profiles. This has been discussed quite a bit. Note that similar laws are making their way through the legal systems of other places. Canada increases their privacy rules in November. California is looking at similar. I doubt this will get relaxed as more places put in stricter privacy laws. Making exceptions is a slippery slope and could lead to problems for WikiTree.

Comments

According to present Wikitree rules, there are several subterfuges available, one of which I utilized before typing this comment in order to get my grandchildren on my descendant list while the loophole still exists. So my problem is solved, for now, :-)

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Subterfuge probably isn't a good idea in general, but posting about it where we can read it is probably an even worse one. :)

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I don't agree that GDPR is the cause for these Wikitree rules.
The legal rules have been interpreted by the powers taht be in WIKITREE  so restrictively as to be ALWAYS on the safe side of the GDPR regulation...
Another implementation of the rules can be seen in Familysearch and Geneanet (although the latter is is not collaborative) where you can create and edit records for living persons even in other lines of your tree,  as long as you are the creator of the record, the parent of the person in the record, or the person in the record.
other people can only see a version with restricted content of the record
But then again Iḿ not the powers that be in Wikitree
Derek

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FamilySearch has a large team of developers and can implement controls as needed. They also have the backing of a large corporation with its own lawyers to deal with legal cases. One big law suit could end WIkiTree but wouldn't end FamilySearch.

Answer 3

Dirk, the GDPR is a law the whole world must follow. The rules about adding living minors on WikiTree are not in place to annoy people; they are there to comply with current laws. If more and more people on WkiTree choose to ignore the law, it could cause WikiTree to be fined heavily and probably result in it being shut down. So while you may have solved your problem for now, you are potentially creating a much larger problem for the rest of us on WikiTree.

Comments

I don't agree with your point but Iḿ not a GDPR lawyer -  the point you make is too literal and way to restrictive in interpretation

Within GDPR rules i have been granted access to the birth marriage and other civil registry records of living people who are part of my extended family, among them minors.. who iḿ not a parent of.

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Being granted access to and collating and publishing are two very different things though.