Warning - Google asking for date of birth

[Hagar]

On trying to log into my Picasa gallery this morning I got this pop-up.



It won't allow you to continue without entering something in the box. I couldn't see what business my age is of theirs so being an awkward old sod I entered the first date that came into my head. Fortunately I chose 1960 as my year of birth. After further investigation this is supposed to be a security measure to prevent people uploading porn etc. Why is google asking for my birthdate

Basically, anyone under 13 years of age will be locked out & prevented from holding a Google account. This means that anyone under 13 giving their correct birth date will be unable to access their existing Gmail or any other Google service.

I've always been a strong advocate of Google but I think this is taking things too far.

[pete]

That's absolutely ridiculous. My daughter and her friends have gmail accounts and use them all the time for school and other things.


Wonder what complete idiot (or bunch of) put this idea into action? 

I will warn her to warn all her friends (luckily they all do BBM's and word spreads like wildfire)

[Hagar]

Further information http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1333913

[ozzy72]

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Nice one Google

[expat]

I just signed into my Picasa account. All worked as normal, no date questions for me :-?

Matt

[Hagar]

I just signed into my Picasa account. All worked as normal, no date questions for me :-?

Matt

Perhaps they already have your birth date Matt. My age is no secret but I choose not to put it in my profile.

[expat]

I just signed into my Picasa account. All worked as normal, no date questions for me :-?

Matt

Perhaps they already have your birth date Matt. My age is no secret but I choose not to put it in my profile.

Could be, apart from my age being on my profile here (date mining), I have an mobile with Android OS and therefor a Google email account. So unless I get an email informing me that Google think my parents bought the phone for me..........................Actually, I would not be surprised

[machineman9]

I've been aged 18+ since I was 12 


Seriously though, if they want to enforce an age restriction, you can't rely on trust! It's the internet... And you are who you want to appear to be.

[alrot]

I think it would be great if there would be some kind of control ,For example Have you seen the reply on YouTube? No buddy can Upload personal Videos and then

[H]

This perversion has infiltrated everything, including job applications. The U.S. has a discrimination law, age amongst the list. Asking if one has a legitimate driver's license if the job requires is one thing -- but asking for a photocopy of one's driver's license, as many places are now doing, is out of place when it's an on location job. Many of these applications state that the information will not be used for the hiring process and sometimes it's stated that the information is just for statistical purposes -- if so, then they shouldn't require it. Increasingly, job applications are not only available online but restricted to online and, as shown in Hagar's Google post, you can't continue, let alone complete the application, unless you fill in the blank.
Now, log out of Simviation to your homepage or whatever. For an example of little effort, google a sentence from this post or another here and see what quickly shows up on the search page... and you're not really trying.

8-)