[londons_explore]

Their implementation has to comply with laws in other countries too. Plenty of countries consider a checkbox too easy to accidentally tick, whereas asking for DOB requires a user to actively make up information, committing fraud if the information is false.

[ectopod]

It might be fraud for a child to give a false birthday to get access to an adult service (or vice versa) but it's not fraud merely to give a bogus birthday.

[raverbashing]

Also, you know, since Google knows the account age and all other information about the user it should be able to give an educated guess about the users age

But apparently Google's knowing that you're a right-handed tae-kwon-do enthusiast that flies every month is not sufficient for them to maybe think you're not a minor.

[landryraccoon]

Does it matter what Google knows? Is a state regulator going to accept "Trust us, the algorithm says they're adults" when they come knocking?