Age Restrictions

Age restrictions are set on a per-user basis, and are used to determine whether or not a user can access a book. For more information on users and user management, see the dedicated users page.

Supported age restrictions representations

The way age restrictions can be represented vary, but Stump aims to support as many as possible and convert it to a common format to be used internally.

Stump treats the age restriction as a minimum age. This means that if a user has an age restriction set to 13,and a given book is rated at 17, the user will not be able to access the book.

The following source formats are supported:

• G / PG / PG-13 / R / X - The MPAA rating system, maps to the following:
  • G - 0
  • PG - 0 (TBD maybe change to 7?)
  • PG-13 - 13
  • R - 17
  • X - 18
• All ages / Teen / Mature / Explicit - More of common phrases, maps to the following:
  • All ages - 0
  • Teen - 13
  • Mature - 17
  • Explicit - 18
• {number} and up - A number followed by and up, maps to the number itself. E.g., 13 and up maps to 13.
• {number}+ - A number followed by a +, maps to the number itself. E.g., 13+ maps to 13.
• {number}-{number} - A range of numbers, maps to the first number in the range. E.g., 13-17 maps to 13.
• {number} - Just a number, maps to the number itself. E.g., 13 maps to 13.

Where does Stump get the age restrictions from?

The age restriction is located directly within the metadata for a book itself, or on a book’s series’ metadata. Stump will attempt to parse this value from the metadata and store it internally as a number (see above).

This means that without metadata, Stump cannot determine whether or not a book is age-allowed. There are fallback options described below.

EPUB

Stump will attempt to parse one of the following from an EPUB file’s metadata:

• typicalAgeRange: Generally in the format of [number]-[number]
• contentRating: Subject to the publisher, but generally similar to that you’d find on a movie or TV show

How does Stump determine whether or not a book is age-allowed?

If a book or a book’s series has an age restriction set, Stump will use that age restriction to determine whether or not a user can access it. The comparison done internally is less than or equal to X number, meaning that if a user has an age restriction set to 13 and a book is rated to 17, the user will not be able to access the book. If a user has an age restriction set to 17 and a book is rated to 13, the user will be able to access the book. In other words, the age restriction set on the user must be greater than or equal to the age restriction number set on the book or series in order to have access.

If a book doesn’t have an age restriction set, but a user with an age restriction attempts to access it, Stump will use the following logic to determine whether or not the book is allowed:

• If the book is part of a series, and that series has an age restriction set, that age restriction will be used
• If neither the book nor the series has an age restriction set, the book will be considered allowed unless a user has an age restriction configuration with the restrict_on_unset option set to true.

Stump doesn’t currently support editing metadata directly, but it is planned for the future! For now, if you need to set age restrictions on your books, you’ll need to use a third-party tool to edit the metadata, then re-scan your library. The updated timestamp on the file should trigger an update of the metadata in Stump.

Other considerations

Library thumbnails

If you generated a library thumbnail for a library which coincidentally contains an age-restricted book that is ordered first, the thumbnail will still be displayed so long as a user has access to the library.

You can get around this by setting a the thumbnail to source from a different book, or uploading a custom thumbnail.