Google demands my birthdate

[ATNotts]

I have just tried to login to gmail and a window has come up from Google demanding I give them my birthdate, and claiming it's a legal requirement. I have clicked past it and an now on my mail account.

Questions:, Is it a legal requirement? Is it really Google that are demanding it? If I were to give them a false date how would they ever know?

[Dave Gittins]

Answers; Not as far as I know; Probably not; unlikely they ever would but (if it really is them) they've ticked their box.

[Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!]

Why would it be a legal requirement? If you were opening a bank account or a credit card I could see it, but Google?

Just give them any old date - but make sure you remember what it was. Make it easy like December 25th or something


...wait, you're not going to some dodgy adults only site are you? :E:=


ok, back to JetBlast for me

[ATNotts]

Having searched the web I see that Google does ask for a birth date when opening an account, looking at my account details (set up years ago) I did foolishly give them my birthday minus the year.
Wouldn't be so stupid these days!

Antivirus hasn't flagged anything suspicious and no funny sites visited.

[Lantern10]

When I opened a Facebook a/c I was asked for my birthdate. I used the day before, the month before and the year before.
Mind you I remember this site also asked the same question when I opened my a/c here.

[Jhieminga]

The term 'legal requirement' is used rather loosely by Google here. There are certain aspects of the services that they provide that are only available to over 13s, or over 18s or over 21s. I suspect that the main drive here is that they will be able to better target advertising when they know your age. They could just as easily have had you click 'agree' to a declaration that you are over a certain age limit.

Many security services will tell you not to share your birthday online as the combination of a name and birthday provides opportunities for identity theft and such. If you use a false birthday, it's somewhat risky as you may run afoul of the site's terms and conditions. I guess that one would be the lesser risk.

[Ancient Observer]

when I joined facebook, I said I was 100 and that I had a memorable birthday. No dates related to the real one. I once changed my age, but they won't allow me to change it again.

So other than silly Happy Birthday comments from friends who should know better, I am obviously getting a bit old for their target audience..............

[EEngr]

I used a date in 2006. Making me 15 years old. Sure, I can't view gory videos or porn. But then Google doesn't carry much of that. What being a 15-year-old buys me is a certain protection from data collection, scams and other stuff for which laws exist to protect minors.

[stevef]

I went to a Youtube site via a link last week and it asked for my credit card details for some confirmation or the other! Exit stage left with a lot of revs.

[SignalSquare]

Just make one up!

[tubby linton]

They have had my birthday for over a decade but they still want me to validate so that I can watch certain parts of youtube. I will not be obliging them.
Youtube say this-The Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) is an EU-wide coordination of national legislation on audiovisual media – both traditional TV broadcasts and on-demand services. Recently, AVMSD was revised to extend certain rules to video-sharing platforms (VSPs).

In line with AVMSD, you may be asked to re-verify your date of birth when watching age-restricted videos. Follow the prompts to submit an image of a valid ID or credit card. Learn more (https://support.google.com/accounts?p=age-verify) about what we do with your ID/credit card.

[Blues&twos]

The problem I found with making up a random birth date - and not remembering it - was that when I had a login issue with one of my online accounts, the helpline tech was unable to confirm I was the account holder, and would therefore not assist.
It took about a week to prove I was the legitimate account owner.