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Credit Card Required To View 'M' Rated Information

Posted by Zonk on from the a-little-extreme dept.

John Callaham writes "Gamecloud has a special feature article titled 'Going Through The Age Gate'. Why are some downloads of game trailers and demos are now requiring that a person declare their age before accessing them?" Not only are some sites requiring you declare your age, Activision is requiring a credit card to view "M" rated game information. From the article: "Asking for a credit card number, even if that the message says it will not be charged, brings up some very serious questions. Why is Activision asking for credit card numbers to access product pages that promote 'M' rated games when the ESRB and every other publisher only use the required 'age gate'?"

4 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Porn sites do it to "keep minors out" by scenestar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And apparently that works.

    So why should "violent content" producers be any different than "adult content" producers?

    (not that I've ever used a credit card to verify my age)

    --
    perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
  2. It's pretty obvious by jpowers · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Because you can't show them your driver's license or photo ID over the internet. The only way they can even try to check for age is to see if you have a credit card (you can only get your own if you're 18 in most states). I'm sure collecting the card lets them verify your ID, but it's useful marketing data for them, too. They can match you wherever you put in that card # and see what you're interested in.

    I'm not thrilled about putting my credit card number in online when there's nothing to buy, but I don't think this is for them to charge it - imagine them treating the card like a doubleclick cookie and you see where they may be able to gather a little bit of data about their users. I'm not as paranoid about personal data as some, so it's not much of a concern to me, but if we had some other unique form of ID I'd be more comfortable with this.

    --

    -jpowers
    1. Re:It's pretty obvious by jonfr · · Score: 1, Interesting

      It is pretty obvious that there credit card check is faulty, i only get the year 2002 as final year. My own credit card however runs out this year (2005), so pepole with legal credit cards can't even check in. However there way to check age is fishy, they are not trustworthy of this peace of info.

  3. Firefox Bypasses It by __aasfhc1949 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Firefox seems to bypass the Activision window blocking access to the "mature" site. All you have to do is open the link in a new tab (middle-click or ctrl-click on the link).