Google, again?!?! Requiring photocopy of government ID
Edward Ned Harvey (lopser)
My 10-year old daughter, after at least 1-2 years of use, tried to sign into her chromebook today, and got the message “It looks like you're not old enough to have a Google Account without parental supervision.” Account is disabled. Cannot login, cannot use chromebook (except as anonymous guest). On the same computer, she has a second google account for participating with her class (covid-19 all students login remotely using Google Classroom). Her google classroom account is fine for now.
This is the same user account she has in her cell phone. If she’s not old enough to have a google account, is the phone going to be disabled too? It seems either the account isn’t truly disabled, just partially disabled for some devices and they’re being inconsistent about enforcement of the age thing across different devices, or they’re being inconsistent about enforcing it, not disabling student accounts (rightfully so, but they shouldn’t be disabling this one either) or else they’re being consistent and I just have to wait a little while for the change to propagate, and then the phone will be disabled.
Obviously, the reason the classroom account is ok is because it must be identified as a child account, and somehow marked as having consent. That’s fine. That’s good.
There is no option for me, the parent, to authorize her disabled account. Nevermind the crap in the error message about “parental supervision,” which would actually be a perfectly acceptable solution. The account is disabled and the only way to re-enable it is to say that you’re over 13, and UPLOAD PHOTOCOPY OF GOVERNMENT ID.
If you were over 13, and consented to uploading government ID, of course they say they will delete it, and of course every human on earth knows that’s totally false bullcrap. Google doesn’t delete anything. Not ever.
WTF, google. Goddamn it.
As usual, there is no option to contact support.
The last time something like this happened, I bitched and ranted here, exactly as I am now, and it just happened that a google employee saw it, and did something about it. That was lucky, but I sure can’t expect it to happen regularly. This is not a google support channel.
Luke Hаnkins
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Edward Ned Harvey (lopser)
I wish I had the option to lie about age. Uploading an ID makes that impossible. Unless I forge the ID which is probably a crime. But then again, I would say for them to require such an ID in order to use their service should also be a crime.
Googling for the error message reveals, many other people have encountered this exact problem. There is an official solution (which doesn’t work). I’m supposed to install Family Link on my phone, then install Family Link on her phone, and do something. But the second step is failing. I open the Play Store on her phone, and of course, it doesn’t work because her google account is disabled. I can’t install Family Link to enable her account, because her account is disabled. Catch-22.
There are also instructions to do this on the chromebook, but has the same catch-22 problem. I sign into the chromebook, go to Settings > People > Parental Controls. It says “Is this the child you want to supervise?” and only lists my own name, because I’m the only user signed into the chromebook. It offers the not-so helpful information “To set up parental controls, your child must be signed in to this device.”
We already have a Family Group, and Family Library where I buy apps and stuff, and she is able to then install and use them. Right now, unfortunately, when I go into the Family Group on her phone, I click on anything, such as “View family members” and it just spins, with the message “can’t load family group.”
I don’t see any option in her phone to login to Google Play using a different account. Inside the Play Store, I click the 3-line menu, go to Account, and it doesn’t list any accounts. It just says “User needs to (re)enter credentials.” And there’s a “Retry” button which spins and does nothing.
Edward Ned Harvey (lopser)
So I managed to workaround the problem of installing Family Link on her phone. Instead of trying to switch user accounts inside the Play Store, I went to phone Settings, and added my own account to her phone. Then inside of Play Store I was able to switch accounts, and install Family Link. Only problem is … It still doesn’t work. I launch Family Link, select her account, and it requires her to sign in, which is of course, disabled.
So the problem is that a disabled account cannot be re-enabled.
So I tried creating a new account. Which would be supremely inconvenient, but what else can you do. Well… Creating a new account requires adding a phone number for verification, and since her phone number is tied to her disabled account, cannot be used.
I’m at a loss. I’m out of ideas for what to try next.
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Doug Hughes
You could (said sheepishly) get a google phone number (free) for
the verification phase which is forwarded.. Not sure if it would
work, but it might.. The google phone number could be associated
with your account, for instance. Then maybe you could change it
back afterwards (or just change the forwarding)
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Edward Ned Harvey (lopser)
It turns out, there is literally only one possible option. Literally nothing else you can do:
You must click the button to change your age, and then get prompted to enter a birthdate that is more than 13 years old (you must lie), and get prompted to enter credit card or upload government ID to confirm your age. Even if you want to upload your ID, they say due to covid-19 it may take several weeks (and your account will be deleted in 30 days). So even if that’s the option you wanted, it’s not a real option. You can lie about your age, and give them your credit card number (with a name that doesn’t match your account name). Give them any valid credit card. There is no verification of any kind; you could have purchased a stolen card for $1 on the dark web. The account is re-enabled instantly, and your child now has the ability to use your credit card.
Welcome to google!
Now that’s finished, I wondered if I could undo the lie, and the answer is: No. I install Family Link Child on her phone, and in order to use it, it needs to delete all other user accounts from her phone, and from chromebook. So in order to give her permission as a child under 13 to use her phone and chromebook, Mom and I cannot have an account in the chromebook (which we do, and which is important).
Incidentally, the child using the credit card is the reason the account was disabled once before. When she was 2 years old, she was playing with the tablet, and she spend $50 real dollars to buy $2,500 in-game dollars for clothes to dress up a character. The digital equivalent of playing dress-up doll. Obviously I should have had purchase protection on, but I just hadn’t realized that yet, so there was a mistake.
I got the email notification thanks for your purchase. As soon as I saw it, I immediately went to the tablet to Refund the purchase, but it was outside the 15-minute window. So I searched for any way to contact google, support, to reverse the charge. I could not find any way to reach them, so I called the credit card company to ask if they had any way to reach the vendor. They said they did. Long story short, over a period of 2-3 days, several phone calls, the credit card company issued a chargeback. And that’s when hell broke loose. Google immediately disabled my account, which disabled much of the functionality in my phone, not to mention my google voice number, which at the time was my primary phone number.
.
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John Kennedy
John Kennedy (_8(|)
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