Am I An Adult?

Dreamstime

At the beginning of the year I set up a new Gmail address that doesn't use any portion of my name for some volunteer work I'm doing. 

Today I got an interesting email in that Inbox, which said that since Google couldn’t confirm I was an adult they had changed some account settings. Now:

• Explicit content, like pornography, wouldn't show up in my search results.
• Personalized ads had been turned off.
• The Timeline feature wouldn't automatically save my visits and routes.

I was actually okay with all of those changes, but I still felt like Google was 'nannying' me. If I didn't comply they would disable, and eventually delete my account. My messages about the group's business meetings and event planning would disappear, and the members of the group would have trouble contacting me.

There were three ways to prove I was an adult. I could give them an image of a government identification, use one of my credit cards, or take a selfie and share it.

I wasn't really okay with any of the options. If I used a government identification Google promised to delete it after the verification (what could go wrong there?). If I used a charge card they would make a small, temporary authorization charge (and then do what with the card number?). If I used a selfie they outsourced verification to a third-party company (and again, what could go wrong there?).

When I realized I could erase the actual number from a photo of my driver's license I decided to do that. After uploading the photo I was asked to verify my date of birth. Less than a minute later I received notification that everything had been verified.

Five years ago: Cusp Of Spring