Google is now requiring all users that want to sign up for an account to provide their birth date. This was only required in the US until now, and even there only for the past year or so.
The reason for this new requirement is to keep out children who are younger than 13 years.
If you enter a date that indicates you are not 13 years old yet, you won't be able to create an account and you get a notification directing you to more information on the matter.
US law forbids companies from storing information about kids under 13 years old, without approval from parents.
While other countries may not have the same law requirements, Google is a US company and, unfortunately, it means it has to obey the local laws, even if something may not be illegal in the user's own country.
Those under 18 can't sign up for Google+, which is for adults only at the moment. This can be problematic for those that signed up for a Google account before the date requirement was implemented.
Now, if they try to sign up for Google+, which requires a birthday to be provided, and they use their real date their entire Google accounts will be disabled, if they are younger than 13.
The problem is that all of your emails, if you're using Gmail, documents and so on, will become inaccessible.
If you enter the date by mistake, you're faced with the same problem and you'll have to prove that you are older before you can use your account again, either by providing a copy of your ID or by using your credit card.
What's even more annoying is that you can't edit your birthday from anywhere on Google, even if the data is available to the company, so if you entered it incorrectly in the past, there's no way to update it. [
via Google OS]
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