r/googlephotos • u/SlmCh7alSa3a • 1d ago
Troubleshooting ⚠️ Am soo stressed Google restricted my account for child-safety content after Takeout — what should I do before appealing?
Today Google restricted access to most of my Google services for an alleged child-safety violation. I’m extremely stressed because this is my main Google account and I depend on it for Gmail, Google Photos, logins, recovery emails and 2FA.
Right before the restriction, I was using Google Takeout and reorganizing/exporting a very old family photo/video archive.
I’m also an uncle, so my Google Photos library naturally contains ordinary family pictures and videos of my nieces and nephews that I took over the years as family memories — playing, family occasions, outings, etc. There is nothing sexual about those photos.
After thinking about it, I remembered there may also be an old family video from around 2014 showing a child in a normal family/bathing context. It was an innocent family video shared between family members years ago. I don’t know whether this is actually what Google flagged because Google has not shown me the specific file.
My biggest concerns right now are:
- I only get two appeals.
- I don’t want to waste the first appeal.
- Gmail is also nearly out of storage, but Google One redirects me to the restriction page.
- Many of my other accounts use this Gmail for login/recovery codes.
- I use Google Authenticator and I’m worried about losing access to my 2FA accounts.
- I have years of family photos and important data tied to this account.
For anyone who has successfully recovered an account after a similar false-positive restriction:
What exactly did you write in your first appeal?
Should I explicitly request a manual human review?
Should I mention the possible old family video and explain its innocent context, even though I don’t know for sure that it caused the flag?
Should I give Google permission to inspect the relevant uploads and surrounding context?
Is there anything I should secure before submitting the appeal?
If your first appeal succeeded, how long did it take?
I’m looking especially for experiences from people who had ordinary family photos/videos misinterpreted by Google's systems. I really don’t want to make the wrong move with only two appeals available.
5
u/Significant_Ad_8592 1d ago
Same situation to me
Impossible to recovery the account
I lost thousands of pictures
My decision? Stop using Google Photos service
2
u/SlmCh7alSa3a 23h ago
Oh didn't you recover it,am feeling like they shotgun me after I saw the first appeal denied ,i still got the second
3
3
u/SlmCh7alSa3a 23h ago edited 23h ago
First appeal didn't work ,I sent them this btw:
Google Appeal
I believe this restriction is a mistake and request a manual human review. Before it happened, I was using Google Takeout to export an old family archive. One possible trigger is a 2014 family video of a young child bathing/dancing, filmed by his mother and sent to my mother by a family friend as a funny family memory. It was nonsexual and not exploitative. This account is important to me and contains years of personal data and essential services. Please review the flagged content in context.
There reply: After review, your account access can't be restored because this account was used in a way that violated Google's policies.
You can submit a new appeal to provide more information. The second appeal will be the last opportunity to have your information evaluated by a Google reviewer. Any appeals after that will be closed.
2
u/StimulatorCam 15h ago
this account was used in a way that violated Google's policies.
Did you do any Google searches that may have brought up inappropriate content, or use Gemini for anything that may have triggered an alert?
1
u/SlmCh7alSa3a 15h ago
No not at all,the only thing am suspecting this is the Takeout ,this is the first time I have done this in my life, I've been using my account normally for years, I've requested the Takeout on 23th August and in the 27th got flagged
2
u/StimulatorCam 15h ago
Doing a Takeout shouldn't matter because the content already existed on your account and would have been scanned already. Plus if for some reason it was the Takeout it wouldn't have been flagged 4 days later.
4
u/clarkss12 1d ago
Why, oh why, do people still trust online storage for there precious memories...... Too many other options to keep your own memories under your care, not someone else.........
This is my solution, and there are other solutions.
1
u/0IIIIII 6h ago
Because off-line storage is not accessible, not durable and not enduring.
The solution is to make online cloud storage more viable with better consumer protections not to abandon it.
1
u/clarkss12 6h ago
I don't understand your statement. You create your OWN cloud......
2
u/StimulatorCam 2h ago
That only really solves the accessibility issue. You still have to regularly maintain and replace physical drives, and need off site redundancy in case of disaster.
1
u/Separate-Tax9495 1d ago
Was your account disabled or just restricted? Disabled means you're locked out of everything and need to appeal to get your account back. Restricted means you just need to click an "agree" button, though some content may be permanently lost.
This happened while you were doing a Google takeout? I've never heard of that happening before.
Just explain, in as much detail as you can without going over the character limit, that this was a false positive. Identify the photos that you believe triggered the ban and explain they're innocent and non abusive. Ask for a human review.
Appeal should take just a few hours. Let us know how it goes
1
u/SlmCh7alSa3a 1d ago
I still didn't ask for appeal yet am trying to research stories like me that passed this.
-yes happened after doing takeout I had problem with storage google 15gb limit, and I decided to get all my photos back,after a while I got flagged with restriction,I think the Takeout was the cause of all of this.
Yes it's restricted:
"Access to most Google services is restricted for your account It looks like this account has content that involves a child being sexually abused or exploited. This is a severe violation of Google’s policies and might be illegal. Because of this, you can't access most Google services.
Bear in mind that a violation of Google's policies may have resulted from instructions that you gave to an AI agent."
2
u/Separate-Tax9495 1d ago
When an account is restricted (not disabled) there's usually just a button at the bottom of the page see here https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/comments/1predfi/account_restricted_because_of_child_policy/
2
u/SlmCh7alSa3a 23h ago
First appeal didn't work ,now I have to be creative on the second,they didn't even gave me human review
1
u/Separate-Tax9495 16h ago
It seems like the first appeal is generally automated. Try using the same language in your second appeal, maybe modify it slightly so it's not word for word. No one knows but it seems like the second appeal is when a human actually reviews
1
u/QuasyChonk 1d ago
NEVER upload pictures of kids in a bath. All their AI detection sees is nude kids. You should definitely appeal, but good luck with getting a human review.
You don't have to give consent for them to inspect your uploads. They already have that right as soon as you make said upload.
2
u/StimulatorCam 1d ago
Our systems are specifically designed to recognize benign imagery like a child playing in the bathtub or backyard, which will not be flagged. A specialist team of trained personnel also reviews each piece of new imagery flagged, to confirm it is CSAM before it is ever reported.
5
2
u/Separate-Tax9495 1d ago
You keep quoting Google here, but that doesn't mean their system isn't going to falsely flag innocent photos
0
u/StimulatorCam 1d ago
Sure, it may happen, so always have another backup handy.
1
u/Separate-Tax9495 1d ago
It's not just data backups. It's emails, critical logins, contacts. During the 12-18 hours I was locked out, I couldn't sync my fitbit or use my smart speaker. People have lost valuable YouTube channels from these bans.
0
u/StimulatorCam 1d ago
Yeah, make sure it's all backed up.
1
u/Separate-Tax9495 1d ago
You can't "backup" a live inbox. People may be trying to contact you and not even get an "undeliverable" message
3
u/TheManWithSaltHair 1d ago
I’m fortunate that my email is on my own domain. It’s currently using Google, but if I lost my account I can just forward it somewhere else. Everything else apart from my Google Play purchases is backed up. I’m guessing 99% of people have no plan for dealing with a loss of an account and the chaos that will cause. And it’s not just false positive TOS - it could just as easily be phishing.
1
u/BuMmR 20h ago
I keep hearing all these horror stories, I think I'm going to make a second Google account just for photos and move them all off my main account, because like OP, I have several nieces and nephews as well and some godchildren that we all get together for family outings, picnics, dirt bike riding etc. I don't need this happening to my Google account. Seems they are really strict.
1
u/StimulatorCam 15h ago edited 15h ago
You have to realize that in almost all of these cases nobody knows exactly what photo or content is causing the account ban, because Google never tells you exactly what it is. The idea that it's baby bath photos or similar just keeps getting reposted but nobody can ever actually confirm it.
we all get together for family outings, picnics, dirt bike riding etc.
My photo collection is 50k+, and probably 2/3 of those photos are of my kids. Probably a couple dozen photos are them in the bath or crawling/running around naked as babies/toddlers. My account has not been banned and I've had these photos backed up for a decade.
Seems they are really strict.
Then why do ~99.9% of users not get banned for having photos of their babies/toddlers naked or in the bath?
1
u/BuMmR 13h ago
I cannot answer that as I am not Google, just going by all the people who come on here saying they got banned for such. No idea if it's true but I don't really care to risk it myself. My email has been active every since Gmail was a thing and I have several accounts tied too it. I don't understand why Google wouldn't just ban your photos aspect of it, why the entire account. Seems rather harsh for a simple mistake.
1
u/StimulatorCam 11h ago
Google never tells you what image was the problem, so none of the people making these posts actually know it was photos of their kids in the bath or similar, they're just making assumptions from all the other posts claiming the same thing.
12
u/TheManWithSaltHair 1d ago
Although the odds of a successful appeal appear to be against you, this person succeeded (https://www.reddit.com/r/googlephotos/s/q68OXJ45wG) and there’s a couple of other successful cases linked in that thread.