Microsoft accounts for children - Verify that you're an adult error

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I recently bought a Windows 8 laptop for my son for his school work. However, after logging in with his email address (also used on an Xbox) he was unable to use any online features which are pretty key to Windows 8 and Office 365.

As it was a child account he got prompted that he "needed permission to use this service” and to have an adult sign in. However, when I signed in as an adult to authorise this I was redirected to the following broken page:

https://account.live.com/ChildConsent/PaymentCollection
Verify that you're an adult
Error

When you verify your age with a credit card, Microsoft charges the card a one-time fee of $0.50 (50 cents), and a portion of the fee is donated to charity.

Our system is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.
If the problem persists, please contact customer support.
(40101-[2]-04c6207c-5883-4e91-b47d-2e6febec6efc)

I contacted Microsoft support via email and got the following reply (24 hours later)

Upon investigating both accounts on our system's database, you are encountering that error message since your child account and your parent account is not using the same country. Parent account is using a UK address while the child account is using a U.S address. For you to have an easier time managing your child account I suggest for you to read the article in this link and follow the steps in it: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windowslive/forum/wlsecurity/age-verification-us-address-default-problem/543328ac-bbc6-40ea-ab11-34306b99cc0a
This basically tells you have to give up and create a new account

However, his account was used on the Xbox so we don't want to lose all his credit, settings and downloads. Microsoft don't seem to understand that this was a significant problem. At this stage I'd shelled out on a shiny new laptop for my son and yet he couldn't use any of the online features.
A trawl of Microsoft answers showed that there were lots of people have the same problem and this also appeared to happen for Windows phone accounts so it isn't just a Windows 8 problem.


The common theme seems to be non US residents with child accounts that were created on an Xbox. At some point in the Xbox account creating/transfer process the child's windows live account get's setup as being US based and this can't be changed (apparently).

After giving up on Microsoft support I thought I'd try making my account US based to see if I could get past the broken page. Although it didn't work at first I did eventually find a way and my son's account is now up and running (no thanks to Microsoft support or answers).
Workaround steps:
  • Set parent account to have US as its location (via https://account.live.com/editprof.aspx) 
  • Wait a while for this to propagate behind the scenes (I had to wait 24 hours) 
  • Re-login to to the child's account and follow the "Have a parent sign in link" 
  • Sign in with the parent link and follow the link to verify that you're an adult 
  • Rather than getting the "Our system is temporarily unavailable" text you should now get a credit card form 
  • Enter UK credit card details but include a US zip code (e.g. Times Square in NY). Format your phone number to follow US convention. 
  • $0.50 will be taken but your child's account will be authorised 
  • Set location back to UK on the parent account if you want to
I'd be interested to hear of other people encountering the same issue as I think this more widespread than Microsoft realise. Hopefully the workaround above will get people up and running.

Comments

Doombar said…
I am going through EXACTLY the same issue - but with the xbox one. My kids have xbox 360s, and their accounts can't log-in to the xbox one. The xbox goes through steps to collect CC information - then tells me that the parent account already HAS this card information... I've tried adding another, too - eventually it just gets stuck.
Spoke to Microsoft SEVERAL times about it and have been escalated to the "Advocacy" team for days - but they haven't called back. The most recent conversation told me that the child accounts are US and that mine is UK - so they advised me to change them ALL to UK - whcih I did. Still didn't work (on the web it gives me a US form to fill-in...) - hadn't thought of choosing false US details for the UK card - will give that a go! Otherwise your suggestion of changing everything to US instead is a good one. (So-far I have given it 12 hours to propagate changes - I will give it another 12 before trying the switch to US details following your experience.
Thanks for your post - You have helped a Cornish bloke retain his hair for at-least an additional 24 hours!
November 29, 2013 9:44 am
Unknown said…
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this help. We've been through this nightmare a few times when my daughter has been locked out of her XBox account. We live in the UK and when we get all the way to the credit card verification, we find that the only country of residence it accepts is the US. So basically, we just pick a state and a zip code, and it works anyway. Utterly stupid design, but at least we know what to do now. Thanks again!
December 15, 2013 8:13 am
Anonymous said…
I have one American account and my dad has another. I had to create my dads to get the xbox one to allow me to do anything. Now even with my parents permission to buy something on the xbox one it says change your family settings. We forgot my dads password so we changed it. But the account on the xbox one still uses the old password even though its linked to the same Microsoft account with a changed password. I'm lost on what to do here. Please help.
November 13, 2014 3:28 am
Unknown said…
going through a similar issue. Tried to set up my son as a family member but it appears his account is an adult account and he doesn't seem to receive my email invitation to join family. why do they make it so difficult to be a responsible parent?
February 27, 2016 2:25 pm
Jill said…
Thankyou SO SO much for the tip on the zip code and phone number. My acount is set in the UK as is my daughters and it accepted this no porblem. I spent 2 hours!!! on the phone today with Microsoft trying to sort this. Thank you!!
December 08, 2017 2:39 pm
Techno Frustration said…
Glad this helped. Hard to believe that Microsoft haven't fixed this yet.
December 09, 2017 4:26 pm
Unknown said…
Thank you very much for the information, I'm also looking for something about children's accounts but at www.hotmail.com
October 02, 2018 6:35 am
iVerified said…
An age verification system as the name suggests - an online application which acts as a barrier for those who doesn’t fall under that age https://sites.google.com/view/identity-age-validation/
December 12, 2018 5:42 pm
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