Unable to unblock Age Verification on Mobile Broadband

[Anonymous]

I'm furious about this.
I've been trying to book my 2 1/2 year old son in to see Santa at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.
Apparently I have to be over 18 to do this.
Since when did the mobile industry self-appoint itself as my nanny (I'm 46 by the way).
I'm not even using a mobile phone: it's my mobile broadband (my only broadband connection at the moment) and I'm sitting at home in front of the computer. This means that I can't use the "Block or Unblock 18+ Content" service because apparently, my mobile broadband number "...is not a valid mobile number".
So basically, my little boy isn't going to get to see Santa this weekend because the mobile industry has taken it upon themselves to protect him from me, his father, and from steam trains which nanny O2 says are unsuitable material for little boys. I'm so angry, I'm close to tears and completely, utterly powerless to do anything about it.
This isn't consumer service, and it's not consumer choice: it's censorship, of people who don't need it, by people who're no good at it, working for a corporation that has no right to do it.
Do I expect O2 to do anything about it: no, I don't. Do I expect anybody at O2 to care: no, I don't. I'm tired, angry and going to bed. And I'll fall asleep trying to figure out how I'm going to explain to a toddler that no, he won't be getting to meet Santa after all.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you would be happier if kids could just buy a dongle and access porn? No? Any mobile connection sold in the uk must have an age restriction on it, unless verified at the point of sale as being for the use of an adult, whether phone or dongle. All it takes to undo it is a call to cs and it is removed in 24 hours. Or you could just vent instead.

[Anonymous]

There is the issue as to why a booking site for a steam railway is blocked by bango. This along with other important questions was never answered the last time the subject came up.
Chris@O2 must have forgotten to come back to the thread.

[Anonymous]

If it involves making online payments maybe it is required by the fsa? Just guessing with that one though.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that's it. Have a look at the previous threads for more on the serious issues which are still not resolved.

[jonsie]

Up to a month or so ago, this issue had never been raised on the forum. Since then I and many people have received the text about the need for age verification and not just for mobile broadband.
So what has changed that we now need to prove we are over 18? It's pathetic that these everyday-information and ticket-booking sites are being used and blocked by the idiotic, inane and the totally senseless pathetic pariahs at bango.
For heavens sake O2, get rid of these cretins now!

[Anonymous]

The silence from O2 is deafening. I age verified years ago and yet I'm being asked to do so again. Not only that but to access non-adult sites.
I do wonder why Chris@O2 didn't answer the questions in the other thread?

[Anonymous]

In fairness to chris@o2, there was an attempt to contact me directly today (btw Chris, I'm wondering if you're a real person , or just a generic customer services moniker?).
Beaufighter,

Maybe you would be happier if kids could just buy a dongle and access porn?

I'm afraid you're confusing me with somone else entirely.
I'll buy the local newspaper tomorrow and hopefully find the details I need (assuming the newsagent will sell me one without asking me to prove my age).
From some of the comments I've read on this forum, this has been far from an isolated incident. If this asinine arrangement is enshrined in legislation, it seems to me to be wholly over the top and in any case ineffectual at preventing web savvy teenagers from accessing inappropriate sites (I don't think my 2 1/2 year old is that into porn). However, I suspect that it's a corporate over-reaction to well-intentioned but woolly thinking. In which case, all it needs is for o2 to want to get rid of it.
I wonder if we'll ever truly know which it is....

[Anonymous]

My point all along has been that the system doesn't work in the way O2 think it does.
This is why the responses from O2 are so frustrating.

[Anonymous]

@ everyone in the thread, but especially the OP. I have obviously misread the nature and scale of the problem here and unreservedly apologise and withdraw my rather spiky response which was, to repeat a very apt adjective used by the OP in the previous post, asinine.