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Comment by pazimzadeh | Hacker News Reader

I received a lifelong ban on using Google Ad products when I was 16 after experimenting with clicking my own ads (and asking my high school friends to click on them). I remember the account accumulated almost $80 before Google detected the suspicious activity and banned me.

Given that this was 16 years ago, it would be nice to get second chance..

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This is also a case for online play on xbox and playstation. You have kids trying to shittalk.. and trying to be edgy. (They have very little life experience to understand why their words are wrong or hurtful). However, some of these bans completely wipe out their entire console.

It's pretty shitty to do a life time ban on their accounts for minor things like that.

Who is banned? Your first @gmail.com address?

If you weren't 18, how did they know who you were?

Yes. I have not tried using a different gmail address. I am not sure if they have my SSN on record or not, it was a long time ago, I don't remember what information I gave them but I did use my real name.

An LLC with an EIN is the answer here.

Same. I wasn't clicking my own ads but I was 16ish and had some sort of text along the lines "Please click an ad to support this website."

20 years later, I'm still banned (well, last I checked was probably 5 years ago). Funnily enough, my day job has me interacting with AdWords pretty regularly.

Also, FWIW you can probably sign up with an EIN, just not a personal account with your SSN.

I have a friend that was banned when he was a teenager too. Might be common.

Now apply that logic to billions of users…

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