Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK the age restriction credit card thing (inside the EU) is the result of some stupid law change (the Audiovisual Media Services Directive). Google probably doesn't want to validate users' age (because selling ads to impressionable kids is very lucrative) but they have to now.
I'm so tired of tech people saying "it has to suck because the law requires it", when they clearly haven't read it. You hear it all the time when discussing tracking banners or ID verification. NO, the law does NOT require your implementation to suck, and most laws give you plenty of leeway in how you implement it. This is really not personal, but I HATE the argument. Take this as an example. The AVMSD isn't new, it…
It's possibly not how they wanted to interpret it (though I see how it helps their ad/tracking business). But it is probably how they have to interpret it because they might get sued if they didn't. At the very least it's an expensive court case to dismiss. All whilst eyeball-thirsty news agencies print articles such as "Google Refuses to Support EU Child-Protection Legislation", and Twitter-personas post tweets like "Uh Google - what about the kids?"