Scottish w*nker f*cks entire family life/business
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Title: My son pleasured himself in front of Gemini Live with the camera. My entire family have had our Google accounts banned.
Subreddit: r/LegalAdviceUK Posted by: NearbyNeck3162 Location: Scotland
He’s 14 and stupidly decided to try and roleplay with Gemini using its live camera mode. The AI correctly identified he was underage and Google banned all my accounts.
He did it on the family tablet. It has parental controls to stop him watching innapropriate stuff, but we dind’t realise Gemini wasn’t covered by these.
ALL of our entire family’s Google accounts were linked to that tablet. Google banned them all.
Everything gone. 15 years of business completely inaccessible.
All my emails, all my documents saved in Google Drive.
Even my website was linked to my Google account and that’s been locked down too.
We’ve written to Google and begged for it to be reinstated but they’ve said all the accounts have been shut down for child protection reasons.
I don’t know how I’m going to pay my mortgage in 3 months time. I’ve literally lost ALL my records for my accountant. My company year ends in May.
My whole life is completely fucked.
Is there any legal mechanism I can use to get all my google accounts back?
Is This Likely True or Apocryphal?
You, dear reader, might find it difficult to believe anyone would be so stupid as to not have a backup for their business - and just leave evrything at the mercy of Google servers. Wot, no local backups?! However there are several reasons to believe the core of this story is plausible, even if the emotional framing is typical of “tech horror story” posts found on Reddit.
1. Google’s Moderation & Policy Enforcement
Google takes Child Safety very seriously. If their AI systems (like Gemini) detect potentially sexually explicit or inappropriate content involving a minor, the response is automated and severe. The “Family Group” link is a known feature where devices and accounts are connected. If a violation occurs on one device, Google reserves the right to suspend or ban associated accounts within that ecosystem to prevent the violation from continuing on other devices. The claim that Google banned “all my accounts” because they were linked is consistent with their Terms of Service enforcement for severe violations, particularly those involving child safety.
2. The “One-Click” Single Point of FailureThis is a classic case of the “Single Point of Failure” (SPOF). Many small businesses operate under the assumption that major platforms like Google, AWS, or Microsoft will never lock them out. * Cloud Dependence: Using a single Google Account for business email, drive storage, website hosting (e.g., through Google Sites or DNS), and payments (AdMob/Stripe linked to Gmail) creates total dependency. * No Redundancy: If the primary login is banned, there is no “off-ramp” to retrieve data immediately without going through their appeal process, which is notoriously slow and opaque for sensitive policy violations. * Local Backups: The idea that a business with 15 years of history would have zero local backups or an alternative cloud service is staggering, but unfortunately common among non-technical business owners who trust “the cloud” is infallible.
3. Apocryphal Elements While the technical mechanics (Google banning linked accounts) are true, Reddit posts often amplify the severity for engagement. * The “Google Won’t Talk” Factor: It is often impossible to know exactly why an account was banned without internal logs. Google rarely gives specific reasons other than “violation of policy.” * The “Legal Mechanism” Aspect: In the UK (and Scotland specifically), under the Data Protection Act and GDPR, there are limited legal avenues to access your own data, but they generally do not override a Terms of Service ban for policy violations (especially child safety). Suing Google for £100k in lost business due to a family member’s misuse is unlikely to succeed in small claims or even higher courts given the liability waivers users agree to.
Conclusion The story is likely true in its mechanics, if not necessarily in its emotional exaggeration. * Google’s behavior: Real. They do lock linked accounts for severe violations. * The outcome: Real. Losing access to all accounts tied to a family group is a standard safety procedure. * The lack of backup: Real. This is the most critical takeaway.
The backup - lack of - situation highlights a massive vulnerability in modern computing: the convenience of integration often comes at the cost of resilience. A business that does not maintain an offline 3-2-1 backup strategy (3 copies, 2 different media, 1 offsite) is gambling with its existence. The specific incident (a 14-year-old misusing camera features) is the cause, but the catastrophe is the lack of data sovereignty.
Our advice?: 1. Do not rely on the appeal process: It often takes months. 2. Seek Data Portability: Request a copy of their data via Google’s “Download your Google Account” tool if they can regain partial access, though a full ban usually blocks this too. 3. Legal Advice: In the UK, the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) handles data privacy. While they can’t force Google to unban the account, they can investigate if data access was denied unreasonably. However, with CSAM indicators involved, Google’s “right to refuse” is very strong. 4. Future Proofing: If the accounts are ever recovered, the business must immediately decouple from Google. Email should move to a dedicated provider (e.g., Zoho, Proton, or a local ISP) with multiple admin accounts, and Drive should move to a NAS (Network Attached Storage) system for local control.