What do you think

madman65 · August 13

I got a survey from ESO in my e-mail. As I started with the first question, it asked my age and I selected "prefer not to tell" and I got disqualified. This is ESO right? We all have choices and it seems like I/we might not. I mean if ESO wanted me to tell my age then why give me the option to not tell. Something does not make sense about this.

Soarora · August 13

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

LunaFlora · August 13

yea you likely need to be above 18 for these surveys

valenwood_vegan · August 13

I believe Kevin has mentioned a couple times before that they need to verify users' age (likely, as suggested, that they are over 18) before they can participate in a survey:

See here for one example: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/8262168#Comment_8262168

"If the survey restrictions you ran into were due to the age requirement, there isn't a ton we can do about that. That in general is specific process we cannot skip for user protection and we can't bend."

madman65 · August 13

Then why have the option?

Sluggy · August 13

Was it a yes/no 'are you 18 or older?' or was it worded to specifically ask for your age? The former is fine, I guess. The second can get right out of here.

AzuraFan · August 13

Sluggy wrote: »

Was it a yes/no 'are you 18 or older?' or was it worded to specifically ask for your age? The former is fine, I guess. The second can get right out of here.

It wasn't an "Are you 18 or over?" yes/no question. It was a "select one of these age ranges or prefer not to say" question.

valenwood_vegan · August 13

Totally agree that it's not a great setup for that question since it ends up disqualifying people who should actually be able to participate in the survey. It would make more sense to ask "are you 18 or over" first, and *then* ask a more specific question about age, to which folks could respond that they prefer not to answer.

Danikat · August 13

Yeah if they just need to know you're over 18 they should ask that directly.

If they also want to know your age range for marketing or statistical analysis or whatever they could make that a seperate question where choosing 'prefer not to say' doesn't disqualify you from the entire survey.

DenverRalphy · August 13

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

Danikat · August 13

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

I haven't seen the survey so I don't know what it's about but some possible reasons I can think of are:

They want to ask about purchasing decisions and specifically want data from legal adults.
They may want to contact people who completed the survey to get further information and it's simpler to exclude minors at the start than try to filter them out later or worry about safeguarding.
Or simply so they have confirmation from the person filling out the survey, even if they're not the same as the person who set up the account. (An amazing number of people share email addresses, sometimes with their whole family, it's really annoying if you're using any kind of system that uses email as an identifier.)

kargen27 · August 13

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

You are not going to ask children what their favorite beer is or what brand cigarettes they prefer. The game is intended 17+ only and that is why a survey would not and should not include minors.
Maybe there should be a follow-up to the prefer not to say choice asking if you are an adult. And presumably we all provided this information before purchasing the game or joining this forum.

Its_MySniff · August 13

What is the big deal? If you can, throw in an age and keep moving. Just pick a number.

DenverRalphy · August 13

kargen27 wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

You are not going to ask children what their favorite beer is or what brand cigarettes they prefer. The game is intended 17+ only and that is why a survey would not and should not include minors.
Maybe there should be a follow-up to the prefer not to say choice asking if you are an adult. And presumably we all provided this information before purchasing the game or joining this forum.

Somehow I don't think ZOS would create an ESO survey asking about favorite beers or cigarettes. But even so, all ESO account owners are considered to 18 or older. At least, as far as the box the account holder clickied at account creation is concerned. Which is the exact same level of consideration and accuracy adding that question to a survey would be.

And still, I fail to see a legal obligation. Sure, it's against the law in many countries and regions to market alcohol to minors. But it's not against the law to ask minors their opinion on the subject matter. Distasteful yes. But not illegal as far as I know.

ArchMikem · August 14

AzuraFan wrote: »

Sluggy wrote: »

Was it a yes/no 'are you 18 or older?' or was it worded to specifically ask for your age? The former is fine, I guess. The second can get right out of here.

It wasn't an "Are you 18 or over?" yes/no question. It was a "select one of these age ranges or prefer not to say" question.

Sounds like a two for one question. They verify the survey taker's age for legal reasons and get data on their customer demographics.

Companies like to know how old their customer base is so they can market to them more appropriately, or start marketing to the age bracket they're missing out on.

Sluggy · August 14

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

Probably required for laws in certain countries. Most have some kind of law about collecting *any* information from anyone under the age of 13.

colossalvoids · August 14

If you believe that the data is used maliciously / for sale you could always pick a random option and proceed further, there's no real need to be precise or something.

Tandor · August 14

DenverRalphy wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

This isn’t the first post like this. I’m going to give a wild guess that it’s because they can’t take data from people below a certain age for legal reasons.

What possible legal reason could that be? Anybody can take a survey at any age. Children are given surveys all the time (What's your favorite flavor of Kool-Aid? Who's your favorite Pokemon? etc..). There are no legal/contractual obligations tied behind anonymous surveys. I've yet to see a survey from ESO that asks for personal information, etc..

And since the delivery system being the email address tied to the account, and account creation already accomplishing the "Are you over the age of maturity", I don't think it was trying to verify being 18+.

Likely the survey wanted a specific age demographic.

You are not going to ask children what their favorite beer is or what brand cigarettes they prefer. The game is intended 17+ only and that is why a survey would not and should not include minors.
Maybe there should be a follow-up to the prefer not to say choice asking if you are an adult. And presumably we all provided this information before purchasing the game or joining this forum.

Somehow I don't think ZOS would create an ESO survey asking about favorite beers or cigarettes. But even so, all ESO account owners are considered to 18 or older. At least, as far as the box the account holder clickied at account creation is concerned. Which is the exact same level of consideration and accuracy adding that question to a survey would be.

And still, I fail to see a legal obligation. Sure, it's against the law in many countries and regions to market alcohol to minors. But it's not against the law to ask minors their opinion on the subject matter. Distasteful yes. But not illegal as far as I know.

Given that the game is age-restricted it is certainly possible that any survey that related to the game but didn't verify the age of respondents would fall foul of the law in a variety of countries, including the UK since the recent implementation of the Online Safety Act.