Children under 13 cannot create a Microsoft account on their own, and teenagers between 13 and the age of majority in their region must have a parent or guardian agree to the Terms on their behalf.
Parents should be aware that their child under 13 is prohibited from creating a Microsoft account independently — if they have done so, Microsoft asks parents to report it, and the account should be set up properly through Microsoft Family Safety to ensure COPPA-compliant parental controls are in place.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Children and Parental Consent (COPPA) and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →Microsoft's age restrictions are legally required under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and failure to comply — such as a child circumventing the age gate — could expose both the child's data and the parent to unintended privacy risks.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates COPPA 15 U.S.C. §6501 et seq. and its implementing rule 16 C.F.R. Part 312, enforced by the FTC, which requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. It also engages GDPR Art. 8 (age of consent for data processing, set at 16 or lower by member state derogation, minimum 13), and the UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code, enforced by the ICO). State laws including California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273, effective 2024) and KOSA impose additional obligations.
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