Videos asking for your age

[Grabbin Keelz]

I don't get what's the point of it. When you watch a rated M trailer or something, a little window will pop up asking for your age. Obviously if your age is correct it will let you watch the video, but there's no way of knowing if the persons being honest.
The first few times around I put my real birthday thinking I had to be honest, now I just click year and scroll down to pick a random date past 1990 to save time. Even if I wasn't actually old enough (I am) to view them, I could easily lie and say I am over 18 to see it. What's the point of these things?

 

[Marter]

To make sure that people won't sue them for showing "inappropriate" material to minors. If they put the thing asking for your age, and the person lies, they are in the clear.

 

[angry_flashlight]

I always put the farthest date from the present (i.e. January, 1st, 1900) just to prove a point. Why the videos on this site do that when I have a profile that could just check that date, I don't know.

 

[Pandaman1911]

My Steam account has my age. And I'm logged in. But every time I want to look at an M rated game, I have to show my freakin' age. I don't understand why it doesn't do this automatically.

 

[Karlaxx]

To make sure that people won't sue them for showing "inappropriate" material to minors. If they put the thing asking for your age, and the person lies, they are in the clear.

Yeah, pretty much; it's just an ass-covering thing. I doubt it would be too hard to cross-check the date you enter with that on your profile, but probably personally the escapist people aren't too torn up about "marring the minds of the innocent children of the internet."

Because those don't exist.

 

[Ashcrexl]

i hate the ones that you have to type the date. i just type the easiest thing to type which is 12-12-1919. but the scroll thingies are fine. dont bother with the month and date, just use the year and scroll down a random length and click on a year. so asking for your age is only mildly annoying

 

[Kiefer13]

They're essentially pointless. Fairly sure it's just done to cover themselves legally.

I never put in my correct date of birth when I was under 18 when asked to in order to watch a video. I still don't even though I now am, because it's much quicker to simply randomly scroll and pick something valid than to actually pay attention and trawl through the lists to select my actual birthdate.

 

[Outright Villainy]

It's just in case minors "accidentally" see material they shouldn't, the most common excuse parents give about this crap.

So yeah, it's ass covering. I'm pretty sure they know statistically there aren't that many people born on the first of january.

 

[GeorgW]

It's cuz they don't want to keep you from watching, as they get money for every view, but they do want to keep their asses clear legally, which is why they ask. Simple really.

 

[Stasisesque]

They're legal waivers, the closest thing you can get to a binding contract without a signature. Once you've entered your birthdate, you've agreed not to sue them. Tada!

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

I am older than 18, but i always pick a random date because that's quicker

 

[Batfred]

They need a system like the old Leisure Suit Larry games. It asked you questions that only an over 18 could possibly know and then tailored the content according to how well you scored. That was a perfect system that I couldn't possibly bypass - it was fun trying as a 13 year old to work out stuff that I shouldn't know yet or wasn't old enough to remember ;-)

 

[Kross]

To make sure that people won't sue them for showing "inappropriate" material to minors. If they put the thing asking for your age, and the person lies, they are in the clear.

Yeah, pretty much; it's just an ass-covering thing. I doubt it would be too hard to cross-check the date you enter with that on your profile, but probably personally the escapist people aren't too torn up about "marring the minds of the innocent children of the internet."

Because those don't exist.

Pretty much this. I generally select January 1st, and spin the scroll wheel down until I see a year more then 18 years ago.

More ass covering: Don't lie, someone who cares will find out and tell your mom.

 

[Slycne]

I don't get what's the point of it. When you watch a rated M trailer or something, a little window will pop up asking for your age. Obviously if your age is correct it will let you watch the video, but there's no way of knowing if the persons being honest.
The first few times around I put my real birthday thinking I had to be honest, now I just click year and scroll down to pick a random date past 1990 to save time. Even if I wasn't actually old enough (I am) to view them, I could easily lie and say I am over 18 to see it. What's the point of these things?

Because when your mom, or anyone's mother for that matter, attempts to litigate against us for exposing innocent little Tommy virgin eyes to M-rated content. We can point to that fact that you said you were born Jan 1 of 1801. We, or anyone else, don't care if you are being honest and nor is anyone "sticking it to the man" when they enter an obscure unlikely date.

 

[Hader]

I hardly ever hear of someone putting in their actual birthdate for these things. I might sometimes, since I am old enough anyways, but so far even my little brother has put some year before 1960 as his birthyear.

The point of them is for the person hosting the video to say that "We warned you!". If someone lies, that is not their problem.

 

[RatRace123]

I always just put a random date, usually something in the 1960s, dunno why.

I'm over 18, so I don't need to lie. I just do it anyway.

 

[drbarno]

I have only stuck in my actual birthdate once, which was when I was 18, probably not too long after my birthday, but generally it's much simpler to scroll down to earliest possible date. hey, at least 1 of the 3 things is correct!

 

[Lilani]

I think age things like that are a bit hilarious, but I'll take them over having to actually sign up for something when I can.

 

[GodofDisaster]

I don't really understand the point in them either, but I suppose it's for legal reasons.

Now that I'm 18 I no longer have to lie about my age but during my younger days, I would type in my actual day and date of birth. But the year would be something like 1986.

Then I realised it didn't matter and just went with any year that would make me 18 or older.