I Spoke To My 18-Year-Old Brother About Having His Twitter Account Locked For Being Too Young

All my brother wanted was some balloons :(

Twitter users have started to notice accounts owned by teenagers disappearing. It's understood that the accounts of people who said they joined before they were 13 are being removed in an effort to comply with new European data regulations.

henrix @mrsinistcr

TWITTER IS SUSPENDING ACCOUNTS OWNED BY 13 YRS OLD AND BELOW,, LETS SEE WHO WILL SURVIVE THE 76TH HUNGER GAMES

09:39 AM - 25 May 2018

miku @mikumiku_ebooks

twitter is suspending accounts for being under 16 years old so if I disappear because I was born in 2007 please play hatsune miku no shoushitsu at my funeral

03:57 PM - 25 May 2018

When the accounts are removed, Twitter removes any trace of them and visiting their page will come up with a "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!"

Happy Gay Tenko @MiccoChabashira

[PLEASE RT] WARNING: DO NOT SET YOUR AGE FOR UNDER 16 ON YOUR ACCOUNT AS TWITTER ARE NOW SUSPENDING ACCOUNTS, MY FRIND JUST UPDATED THEIR BIRTHDAY AND GOT SUSPENDED, PLEASE RT TO SAVE A LIFE https://t.co/YZD408BIwb

01:55 PM - 25 May 2018

Dylon W, a 17-year-old student from Ohio, said his account was locked after he had updated his profile with his date of birth.

twitter

Dylon said that after talking to a friend about Europe's new data regulations he didn't think he would be affected as he made his account when he was 14 years old.

He said: "As a resident of the US, I didn't think I'd really have to worry too much. However, I was curious as to if I was able to change my birthday.

"After all, there was a long time where Twitter wouldn't let me set my birthdate; it would simply not update my profile whenever I attempted doing so.

"And so of course, I went to my profile and sure enough, I was finally able to set it. Upon doing so, Twitter prompted me with a notification saying something along the lines of 'Are you sure you want to make these changes? This may affect your account.'"

He said he thought he had nothing to worry about but ended up having his account locked immediately.

Happy Gay Tenko @MiccoChabashira

THEY ARE OVER 16 AND YET THEY GOT BANNED FOR THEIR BIRTHDAY, IT SAYS THAT THEY ARE UNDER 13 WHEN THEY DIDN'T JOIN TWITTER TILL THEY WERE 14!!!! #FREEDYLON https://t.co/eoRo5HXUws

02:31 PM - 25 May 2018

Dylon said: "Now, I wasn't going to just let my Twitter slip through the cracks," and so he used Twitter's help portal to submit his ID, but it got rejected.

Supplied

Dylon said: "I also attempted to use their support account, @TwitterSupport, however it seemed to be down at the time, and still at the time of writing this.

"Though somehow, like many others, Twitter rejected my proof, and responded with this message via email."

Similarly my brother, Ismael Dahir, an 18-year-old student from London, had his account locked and removed too. He said he only changed his date of birth to get balloons on his profile on his birthday.

Supplied

Dahir said: "I changed my age so I could put my birthday on my account. When I did sign up for Twitter, it didn’t ask for my age but now all of a sudden there’s a push for age.

"Yes, I joined before I was 13 but again it didn’t ask for my age, so I wasn’t aware there was an age restriction.

"As with Facebook, I joined that when I was younger and that allowed me to change my age once I turned 13, without any account changes/suspensions."

He submitted his ID to Twitter but, like Dylon, he was told Twitter reviewed it and said it didn't reach Twitter's age requirement. Dahir says the rules aren't fair.

Supplied

He added: "Why are they targeting people who just simply want to display their age on their Twitter?

"If anything this should be promoted, as then people are aware of how old other people are before talking to them."

Twitter has been contacted for comment.