AGE LIMIT TO OPEN ACCOUNT?

[4duke50]

Can children under 12 open an ebay account?

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

Trading on eBay, both buying and selling, involves entering into a contract with the other party to the transaction.  In Australia you need to be over 18 to enter into a binding contract* (see disclaimer below).

Now, before members post here about eBay transactions not really being a legally binding contract, my comment above is a representation of what eBay would have us believe to be the state of play in an eBay transaction . . . . . but we all know that there are no penalties* for not fulfilling an obligation as either a buyer or seller on eBay.

There have been some court cases involving eBay transactions over the years, but these are few and far between and usually involve large $ transactions or individuals who have deep pockets and are able to afford such legal actions.  One that comes to mind is the Wirraway plane case where the buyer took the seller to court.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/aircraft-in-ebay-dogfight/story-e6frg6nf-1111112298094

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648121130.html

There have been threads and posts here on the boards by members who let their children use their eBay account with close supervision.  Such accounts are held in the parents' names and would require close monitoring as the account holder is responsible for all activity on their account and they are not able to claim "but my child bought that without my knowledge" to weasel out of a transaction*.

The danger in allowing a child to use your account is that the computer used may have stored user IDs and passwords which allow the child to bid, win and pay for the item using PayPal account held by the parent.  Although the child may do this without the parent knowing, a chargeback on a credit card may be knocked back if it happens more than once as that might not constitute unauthorised use of the credit card if the card issuer takes the stance that the parent, while not knowing about the transaction, facilitated the unauthorised use through having lax protocols in place to prevent the use of the card by the child . . . . particularly if it has happened before*.

So, I suppose the short answer to the question you asked is "No", but the reality is that there is nothing stopping an adult from opening an account using their details and allowing a child to access and use the account providing they accept full responsibility for the actions of the child when using the account.

One danger would be where a child has little concept of the meaning of bidding and buying and having less concept of the value of money.  An example for this would be the child who sees a nintendo game on eBay and likes the look of it and wants it . . . . . . without realising that the nintendo game in question is a rare mint in packaging game worth a lot and treats eBay like a game and bids $100,000 (because they really really like the look of it).  The link below is to an article about a rare nintendo game that sold on eBay.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/5/5380924/nintendo-world-championships-cartridge-sells-for-100k-on-eba...

disclaimer:  I am not offering legal advice in this post nor making any claim to having legal experience or expertise.  I am offering a personal opinion based on my experiences on eBay, reading of eBay policies and years of reading on these discussion boards and news site articles about eBay.