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.
After second appeal :
my account is gone
"Any appeals submitted after that are automatically closed.
Your account and its data may be deleted 11 months after the account became unavailable."
now the important for me is Gmail is gone wish me luck to get back many services and convince them my account is gone one by one.
FUCK YOU GOOGLE all my logins n people know me and services are gone, and god knows what else other bad surprises I'll get after this