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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

#51

Post by fsckboy »

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…

> especially when setting up an account where money will change hands. That is technically actual fraud

no, that's not fraud. It might be an element of fraud if it was a loophole you were exploiting to use the account for some fraudulent purpose, but fraud requires theft or similar, not just technical violations of terms.

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

#52

Post by romwell »

kweingar wrote: post #23

I've been banned-for-life from a handful of services after I lied about my age as a kid. I can see both (all?) sides of this: - As a society we ought to be forgiving of harmless youthful indiscretions - As a business you shouldn't have to give second chances to people who blatantly defraud you - There is a big can of worms when it comes to doing business with minors on the internet. I don't think there's a solution a…

I think the solution is "the right to fucking delete your account forver".

Google keeping "limbo" accounts is dystopian, and seems like a GDPR violation to me.

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

#53

Post by MattGaiser »

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…

> but there really needs to be an escape hatch if a parent agrees to whatever activity is being done.

Wouldn’t this be the parents signing up for the account?

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

#54

Post by romwell »

nerdawson wrote: post #50

Issues like this wouldn't exist if verification was required upfront. If you need to be at least 18 to use a particular service, and they're going to verify at some point , that point should be at the very start.

This sounds like exploitation of minors: let them create an account that generates revenue, but only kickban them when it suits the company

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

#55

Post by doodlesdev »

testfoobar wrote: post #42
jeffbee wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I beg do differ. When I was a kid I used to have a YouTube channel with AdSense. Difference being I actually read the ToS and decided that it would be my parents channel, only I would be recording. Never clicked on my channels ads (in fact that's when I started using AdBlockers, for the sole purpose of not generating fraudulent ad revenue).

Reading at 16 years old is not that hard. I created that YouTube channel much earlier than that. I also don't believe that as I aged I have magically understood better the worlds boundaries and limits.

Mind you, 16 years old is enough to drive in some places. Enough to work in others. And also enough to drink in some others. It's just not that young and people should take responsibilities for their actions.

Principles and values are something that's established early on in someone's life. If someone doesn't care for defrauding a company of $80 when they are 16 years old, I don't honestly believe they deserve a second chance.

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

#56

Post by filoleg »

testfoobar wrote: post #42
jeffbee wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. That + the offense itself is rather stupid minor. The user didn't defraud people out of a lot of money, the user literally just had a few classmates click on an ad, made $80 (that I bet weren't paid out anyway, because the account got banned), and now they are banned for life.

At the very worst, I would say a more fair punishment would be a ban for a year or until they reach the age of 18 (whichever comes later out of those), especially given it was the first offence.

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

#57

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

code51 wrote: post #2

A 13-year-old boy sets up Adsense for his Youtube channel and his father is told that his son is now banned from Adsense/Admob for a lifetime. This is what you get when you have no humans in the loop.

Was he told this? The submission appears to be a user comment from some anonymous guy named "busterjet", describing what would happen in a hypothetical scenario. There's no indication that such a scenario has actually happened or that busterjet represents Google.

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

#58

Post by romwell »

shadowgovt wrote: post #33
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.

It may not be possible for Google to do that redirect without incurring legal liability. Fraud occurred here. Google just shuffling the shells might be aiding and abetting fraud. (The law here isn't set up just to protect Google; nor is it set up to just protect the kid. It ties into broader societal protections against child exploitation and child labor. So Google runs the risk of tripping over criminal liability, i…

>It may not be possible for Google to do that redirect without incurring legal liability.

Utter nonsense.

"Hold on, you are 13? Get your parents to call us, they'll have to set up that account for you"

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

#59

Post by romwell »

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)

No, the problem is that Google doesn't have a human being to tell the kid "have your parents contact us".

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

#60

Post by forgotpwd16 »

treffer wrote: post #30
pcai wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would having a human in the loop accomplish in this case? Doesn't strike me as the poster child of a massive injustice

Got banned from Amazon on my first purchase. For some reason the payment bounced even though everything should have been fine (correct payment details, enough money in the account etc). Complained and got unbanned. AWS has even a notary(!) based process to recover accounts. It is pretty normal to recover bad things on non-Google sites by getting a human into the loop, especially if money is involved.

AWS support has left me really impressed. They were answering inquiries even when started and was playing around a free-tier account. (Even got a refund for a charge due to forgetting some stuff running beyond the free-tier limit.) Not surprised they dominate the cloud segment and GCP barely reaches two-digits usage.
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