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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

#221
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Free work" of children is "child labor."

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

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name…

> The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name." I certainly wouldn't think that, as it sounds like horrible idea. Your teenage child posts one picture of themselves in a compromising situation, and suddenly you're lost all access to your accounts for the rest of your life. I'll pass, thanks. And, yes, I get the "educate your children" thing.. but children do stupid things. He…

Maybe don't have the account that is linked to their adsense linked to anything but their adsense? Seems completely insane to link an adsense account you created for your child to anything but what it needs to be used for adsense.

Honestly, if you're making money from something you should have it away from your personal things. Just like how you shouldn't have AWS activated for your main amazon account.

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

#223
post #188

> Your son's account is now in limbo - it can't be verified, closed or paid out. It can only be abandoned but it will still technically be active as AdSense think he is over 18 - he declared that to be the case. Of course it can't be verified now , but what would prevent the son from completing the verification in a few years when he is actually 18?

Presumably because the Date of Birth on the account is immutable, and the son's ID (even when he becomes 18) will never match it?

[deleted]

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

#224
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or let me put it this way: if I would be judged with that severity for all stupid things I did, I would be in guantanamo.

I suspect that there's enough of us that it would be more economical to relocate Australians and revert the continent to a penal colony.

I'm pretty sure half of the folk in tech at some point did illegal tech things in their teens. Rebelling and breaking the law in your teens is kind of normal and should be expected in my opinion.

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

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name." I certainly wouldn't think that, as it sounds like horrible idea. Your teenage child posts one picture of themselves in a compromising situation, and suddenly you're lost all access to your accounts for the rest of your life. I'll pass, thanks. And, yes, I get the "educate your children" thing.. but children do stupid things. He…

> Heck, an adult lost their gmail account forever because the sent a picture of their child to their doctor; one the doctor asked for. All the bad press didn't sort that out? That kind of thing shouldn't happen in the first place, but we can usually expect that once it hits headlines some PR drone swoops in to fix the issue.

That's a definition of the word "fix" with which I am unfamiliar.

He still doesn't have access to his accounts.

If a sympathetic police department had not offered to navigate the (likely complex) process of restoring their copy of his data to him, he would have little hope of recovering the data, either. (My hat's off to whomever made that decision, because my guess is other considerations would almost always prevail.)

If federal investigators had not been quite so favorable in recognizing the nature of the situation, that component alone could have easily ruined him.

I'm also unaware of what his legal and other professional fees have been in all this, but I would imagine Google has done nothing to reimburse him for his expenses, much less compensate him for the time wasted and incredible stress that had to place on him and his family.

Beyond all that, getting SEO bombed as being potentially involved in the production and distribution CSAM is not a positive outcome for anyone who values their privacy or wants to ever have a normal interaction with a new employer or any other entity that may search his name. Beyond that, those who regularly fill out official forms relating to background and behavior will forever have to answer some questions differently and jump through the additional hoops an experience like that would trigger.

His outcome has been one of the least-terrible possibilities, but I hope he sues Google in a very public and embarrassing way, because whatever damages are awarded will be a rounding error to them.

Finally, the process itself is by no indications anything but still completely broken.

Your suggested "fix" is anything but.

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

#226
It would be understandable if it were for scams or using ads for illicit goods, but I can't imagine it being a tenable business practice for a corporation to keep a negative permanent record over a minor transgression where no-one is hurt. Are they being pushed by some regulations? Were those rules "written in blood" somehow?

Not to mention all the sketchy or pointless webpages and apps which are there exclusively for the ad revenue and are really abusing the platform.

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

#227
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

> Is it insufferably arrogant to ask people to stop using insensitive, hateful, or discriminatory words? When that word is 'dystopia', yeah. Getting this offended about a megacorp being called dystopian is insufferable. Whatever your relationship is to Google, it doesn't warrant this level of personal attachment. You're acting like he insulted your own mother or something.

I’m not offended in the least, I’m just tired of reading melodramatic takes from people who haven’t experienced any hardship. It’s a common theme here and I want it to be better. Let’s attribute the correct level of concern to things instead of calling keeping track of people who defrauded you “dystopian”. There’s literally a war happening and an actual real government cutting off communications to its people so that they can’t protest, let’s focus on that very real dystopia.

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

#229

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..

This is also a case for online play on xbox and playstation. You have kids trying to shittalk.. and trying to be edgy. (They have very little life experience to understand why their words are wrong or hurtful). However, some of these bans completely wipe out their entire console.

It's pretty shitty to do a life time ban on their accounts for minor things like that.

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

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name." I certainly wouldn't think that, as it sounds like horrible idea. Your teenage child posts one picture of themselves in a compromising situation, and suddenly you're lost all access to your accounts for the rest of your life. I'll pass, thanks. And, yes, I get the "educate your children" thing.. but children do stupid things. He…

> Heck, an adult lost their gmail account forever because the sent a picture of their child to their doctor; one the doctor asked for. All the bad press didn't sort that out? That kind of thing shouldn't happen in the first place, but we can usually expect that once it hits headlines some PR drone swoops in to fix the issue.

Google doesn't really care about bad PR from account deletions. Most people don't hear about them, they rarely hit the news.

What annoys me is, just this week Meta tried to claim that they were basically a social infrastructure that is essential everyone uses and relies on and that they shouldn't be held to blame for what people see on there when it's legal to post. While at the same time, these companies don't want to act like any of the other infrastructure. Ban people for no reason, no recourse, and no come back. While at the same time claiming they're there for the people and are providing a public service.

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