Microsoft wants you to lie about your age

[TheTaco007]

It has come to my attention in the past few months that it appears that the xbox 360 punishes people who don't falsely claim to be over the age of 18. I'll admit it, I'm not quite 18 yet, and I chose not to be a dishonest prick and lie. However it appears that much of the stuff on the xbox live marketplace is rated M or is pending, and therefore I couldn't download it. (For instance, I was denied the L4D2 beta, and more recently the Bad Company 2 beta.) Looking further into this, I went into the xbox live family settings and set it to allow the download and playing of mature content. I then went back to the xbox live marketplace and tried to download it again. Again it told me I wasn't old enough. I ask this question: Why is there an option to allow the user to download rated M content, if enabling this setting doesn't actually let them? I called xbox live support, because I was out of ideas, and was told that there was no way to fix this, short of creating an account that was over 18. Unfortunately, I don't really have the money to pay for TWO xbox live accounts at the same time, and I sure as hell am not going to erase all my achievements and progress in all of the games I have. The only solution I found was to create an xbox live silver account that I didn't have to pay for, when I soon found that most of the stuff on the xbox live marketplace is only available to gold members.

This is a warning to anyone under 18: Microsoft will punish you for not lying about your age.

(Unless someone can post a remedy to this situation)

 

[Julianking93]

This is why lying makes everything better.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Ratings are pretty bullshit if you ask me. But still, they don't want you to lie about your age. They don't want people under 18 to play their games, or they get sued. Don't try to think that they're just being assholes, because they aren't.

 

[AvsJoe]

Just lie about your age next time. Very rarely are there ramifications. I used to do it all the time way back when I had that problem.

 

[delet]

Tough crap. Microsoft is a company that is worried about being sued. If they allow people under the age of 18 to play M rated games or content that isn't considered suitable for people under the age of 18 then they're liable to be bitched at and there could be possible law suits.

 

[Segadroid]

First: That's just ridiculous.

Second: Who doesn't lie about his age when half of the stock market is 18+? Okay, you got some people who do that, but still; My point is given.

 

[C0nn0r666]

my friend had the same problem she just made one of those one month free accounts downloaded both thoses demos and just went back to her other account and played.

 

[PlainTwo]

I'm almost certain you can add a parent email to your XBL account. The email my tag is registered under has my actual age, which is under 18.

So to fix it there was something you can do to add a parent email or something like that, just make sure it is over 18.

I can't remember how to do it exactly, but I was able to download M content after I tagged my mom's email address to my XBL, you should be able to do the same.

 

[coldshadow]

lol, I hardly see how this is microsofts fault. considering they legaly have to do this due to the ESRB rating system. ya it sucks, but its the rules.

 

[aseelt]

As one of the posters said, Microsoft would get sued.

I used to work for Woolies and each sales assistant was personally liable for any sales to underage kids. Meaning up to six months in prison and £3,000 of fines.

A fine for a corporation would probably be much larger. So yeah, Microsoft won't want to do that.

 

[WestMountain]

Do the 1 month free gold when creating a new account thing like c0nnor0r said and play the Beta till it ends :]

A little more OT: They will get sued if they don't do that

 

[Zayren]

You can make an older than 18 account and download it on that to play on your normal one.

Unless it's gold only.

 

[FatherSpleen]

No, YOU don't understand. The ESRB knows better than ALL of us that NO ONE can handle ANYTHING in an M-rated game until one day you wake up and find out that you have suddenly matured to the level of being able to handle some violence and blood or whatever M-rated games throw your way.

That's what the ESRB has taught me.

 

[zacobar]

hell, I'm staggered. I lied about my age so many times in the net to get the goods. Thankfully that's behind being an embittered 20 yr old but Jesus.

I mean, how do you get your pron? lol

 

[SextusMaximus]

That should happen though, right?

Frankly, I have parental consent to play some mature material, all of which I check with them.

I mean, there's nothing stopping you from lying, apart from your figurative 'moral' meter steadily going down, but that's what should happen to people.

 

[soren7550]

Here's a thing I don't get: to get M rated games, you have to be 17+. When I made my account about a year back, I put down my real age (17), thinking 'I can go to a store to buy this kind of junk, so online shouldn't be any different.'

How wrong I was. It better let me be able to do what I should be allowed to do already 11 days from now. (I'm turning 18 then)

 

[MurderousToaster]

I'm apparently 38. Heh.