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Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

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Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#41

Post by josephcsible »

TylerE wrote: post #32
sct202 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human in the loop could redirect payments to their parent without a lifetime ban. Children do unwise things all the time. Google's growth rates are starting to plateau, and they might want to revisit the legion of people they've robobanned from spending on their platforms.

The problem is minors can’t legally enter into binding contracts (with a very small number of exceptions, none of which this even approaches)

That'd be a reasonable argument to ban minors until they turn 18, but not after that.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#42

Post by testfoobar »

jeffbee wrote: post #19
pazimzadeh wrote: post #5

I received a lifelong ban on using Google Ad products when I was 16 after experimenting with clicking my own ads (and asking my high school friends to click on them). I remember the account accumulated almost $80 before Google detected the suspicious activity and banned me. Given that this was 16 years ago, it would be nice to get second chance..

Quoted post unavailable.

Perhaps you did not note that the banned person was 16 years old. There should be very few actions with life long consequences for any 16 year old. Their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed. They experiment and engage with the world to learn its boundaries and limits.

Click fraud for $80 when 16yo does not warrant a lifetime ban.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#43

Post by codexon »

I know this is going to be hard to prove, but I was banned forever because they detected "click fraud" which did not come from me. It was likely initiated by a competitor.

Now I still use adsense, but now it is through a 3rd party which takes a hefty cut of the profits.

If adsense is your sole income, you should probably diversify. Anyone can get you permanently banned unless you are a well known youtuber.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#46

Post by code51 »

shadowgovt wrote: post #13
Hizonner wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is very unwise to use any Google product or service for any business purpose.

It's very unwise to lie to a service provider when they explicitly ask, especially when setting up an account where money will change hands. That is technically actual fraud. Google's not gating out under-18-year-olds for fun: they're a business, they'd love to make more money. Contract law in the US forbids people under 18 from entering into broad categories of contract, and Adsense use operates under electronic con…

If Google was so worried about this, their AI and behavior analytics can %99.9 know you are underage. They could show a BIG RED alert multiple times about this. Plus, I don't see heavy upload traffic from these young people becoming a liability on their end which is basically free work.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#47

Post by adoxyz »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #18

Note that the responses are responses by a community member and not by a Google employee. As such, those responses should be taken with a grain of salt.

Came to say this. This person knows even less than actual Google support (which may or may not exist in the first place).

Google not having real human support is unbelievable.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#48

Post by Semaphor »

Swizec wrote: post #28
Shank wrote: post #15

As someone who operated on the "adult internet" with payment processors and related infrastructure without being 18, I still carry forward the constant fear that I'll be banned for retroactive Terms of Service violations incurred when I was a kid. It really sucks when it's services like AdSense because you're just screwed forever. I really really wish the internet was more supportive of "early hackers" who want to ex…

> if a parent agrees to whatever activity is being done My mom definitely wouldn’t be able to provide informed consent to half the stuff I was doing on the internet in high school and middle school even if I told her about it. She worried, I’m sure, but between speaking next to zero english and the novelty of www in the early 00’s, best she could do was threaten to take the computer if things got too weird.

When I was a kid, i hosted WC3 beta cracks, patches, and servers on our ISP Webspace. Blizzard had some call our ISP, who called my dad, who told me to stop doing whatever it was that got people mad

It feel like nowadays, it'd have resulted in a lawsuit, but at least threatening lawyer letters.

edit: Archive.org link to the site. With a visitor counter and cringy teeny-sounding English ;) https://web.archive.org/web/20020522193227/http://home.foni....

For anyone interested, this was strictly beta, by a group of crackers who said they’d stop releasing anything as soon as the game was done. I was one of 4 or 5 people who’d get advanced notification in IRC to upload the newest patches etc. so there’d be multiple mirrors available for the announcement.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#49

Post by ars »

Shank wrote: post #15

As someone who operated on the "adult internet" with payment processors and related infrastructure without being 18, I still carry forward the constant fear that I'll be banned for retroactive Terms of Service violations incurred when I was a kid. It really sucks when it's services like AdSense because you're just screwed forever. I really really wish the internet was more supportive of "early hackers" who want to ex…

The escape hatch is the parent opening the account in their own name.

Companies don't have a choice here: Someone under 18 can not enter into a contract, there's nothing really they can do.

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