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Comment by crazypyro | Hacker News Reader

Its age requirement + debit card. I think that is a fairly effective blocker. At the very least, it'll almost completely stop any chance of children under 15-16 from joining the program and sending/receiving money. There will always be chances of abuse with any platform that allows sharing. I just don't understand how this announcement is anymore scary than other social media adding into social payments, except for the typical stereotype of Snapchat only being used for nude pictures.

If you are speaking about adults selling pictures of abused children back and forth, this'll be no different (even less secure) than current technologies that pedophiles use to avoid detection.

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> Its age requirement + debit card. I think that is a fairly effective blocker. At the very least, it'll almost completely stop any chance of children under 15-16 from joining the program and sending/receiving money.

Can under-16s not get debit cards in the US? I know they can get them here in the UK, I got one when I was 14, IIRC.

An anecdote: at least when I was growing up, I didn't notice anyone under 18 with a debit card; most people used cash for purchases or borrowed credit cards from their parents when they wanted to go shopping on the weekend.

That said, I don't know if there are regulations here in the US concerning debit card age requirements, but from a cursory glance of a few US banks, it looks like children under 18 are allowed to get a checking account (and hence, a debit card) provided that they get a joint account with their parents. Perhaps the policy is different for teenagers who wish to separate finances from their parents for whatever reasons, but those are edge cases.

Yep, I got a debit card when I was about 13. I distinctly remember going to the bank with my mom to open a checking account, and explaining to the teller that I needed a debit card because I wanted to sign up for an account with this new company called Paypal.

Here in the UK I could get a fully independent bank account. I just got meagre interest, no chequebook or direct debit, and no overdraft.

I believe you need the account to be co-owned by a parent until you are 16. I know that when I was under 14 with a paper route and needed a checking account (early 2000's), I needed my mother to be on the account as well. While that doesn't prevent shit in terms of underage users here, at least parents who know and watch out for this can check and know that their kid is using it.

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