The majority of your callers will obviously be 18 or older, but sometimes you'll get someone with a very young voice. If it's obviously a minor or group of minors, sternly tell them not to call back, or we'll call their parents. Then hang up. Don't wait for them to hang up first. We can't keep them from calling. We can however, make sure that when the bill arrives, it shows a VERY short call. It's important that the parent receiving the bill knows that AS SOON as we realized we had an obvious child on the line, WE disconnected...

Then there are the callers who almost sound old enough, but you're not absolutely sure... If you think your caller might be younger than 18, ask his age and what year he was born. Click HERE for an easy-to-use age/YOB comparison chart. If he doesn't seem to know the year that matches up with 18, tell them not to call back, or we'll call their parents. minors call in on the 900 lines. Watch for them and when you get one, make sure that it is a very short, not-fun-at-all call for them. As soon as you hear what you know is a child's voice, say immediately, "Do not call here again or we'll call your parents". Most kids will hang up at this point - if at least one of the kids on the line lives in the house, he's usually smart enough to end the call and stop his friends from doing it again, at his expense. Whether he hangs up or not, you definitely hang up. Do this within the first minute of the call so it doesn't count against your hold time.

MOST of your credit card callers are going to be 18 or older, BUT a minor can get through on almost any line - so bottom line - if you really do not believe that the voice you're hearing could be 18 or older, disconnect.

If you aren't positive of whether your caller is an adult or not, you may want to ask him his age, and what year he was born. Mainly do this go get a chance to listen to his voice and his speech more... If his age and year match up, he might be old enough, but then again, he might have called 5 mins ago and been asked age and year of birth by someone else, got it wrong and got hung up on. So now he's trying again, and he did a little math before he called.

Go by VOICE more than anything when determining whether someone's a minor or not.

Granted, some men have very young-sounding voices. Sometimes a question like "what do you do for work?" will help you determine whether or not he's a minor.

If he's borderline and you just do not feel sure enough that he's at least 18, politely tell him "I'm sorry, you just don't sound old enough to me - I'm going to have to disconnect"... It's better to disconnect someone who sounds extremely young (they're used to it) than it is to have some parent out there receive a 900 bill, and have to imagine what their 12 year old heard on an adult phone line.

There is no excuse for continuing a call with a minor. We can't keep them from calling but we can make sure that when the bill arrives, it shows that the adult at our service did not continue the call with their child.