If You Break The Rules On Google+, You Can Lose All Google Services

In order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, Google+ requires its users to be at least 13 years old. Last week, a 10-year old Gmail user in the Netherlands signed up for a Google+ account, and Al Jazeera reports that that's when trouble started.
The boy, Alex, was kicked off of all Google services for his terms of service violation. Furthermore, his father writes in a blog post that Google informed him that his account will be deleted in 29 days unless he can provide some proof of age (he can't).


This brings up a troubling but important point. Google rules so many markets and this makes it entirely possible to rely only on one company for managing your digital life -- email, word processing and document management, and now social networking.


So play nice on Google+.


There are two sets of rules to follow. Its general terms of service applies to all things Google, and the community standards are specific to Google+. It includes things like:

• no nudity or sexually explicit material

• no hate speech

• no impersonation of others

• no publishing of someone's private or personal information

• no copyright infringement

• no spamming or phishing

These are all pretty common sense guidelines, but with the new precedent that you can lose all Google services for breaking them, it's a healthy reminder.