Twitter Blocking Users Who Were Underage When They Signed Up

[DooKey]

Twitter is blocking users who were underage when they signed up for the service. This is in response to the GDPR that recently became active. As a matter of fact they are suspending those users even if they are old enough to sign up for the service now. Anyway, there is light at the end of the tunnel because some users have reported they are able to get their account back if they submit proof of age. Blocking these accounts seems like overkill to me, however, I can understand that the law of unintended consequences is working here with the GDPR.

Twitter declined to comment, but a source at the company confirmed that it now has a policy to retroactively lock accounts created by children. Since it does not have the tools to separate the content a user created while under 13 from content created when over 13, the Twitter source explained, it instead decided that the only way to comply with GDPR was to suspend users who have a date of birth that may mean they were under 13 when they signed up.

 

[U-238]

I'm not the biggest fan of GDPR due to it's broad reach and overall vagueness, but shit like this makes it pretty easy to see why laws like it are enacted.

 

[Azphira]

That proof wouldn't happen to include any information you normally wouldn't give them would it?

 

[Nolan7689]

You have to be 13 to sign up....how the fuck is a 13 year old going to have proof of age?

 

[sfsuphysics]

You have to be 13 to sign up....how the fuck is a 13 year old going to have proof of age?

Maybe there's a log of their original sign up, they signed up at 12... it tells them they're too young to sign up, so the hit the back button and subtract a year or two from the birth year and voila! 13+

 

[katanaD]

why is 13 the age its ok to sign up for twitter?