It’s nothing personal! Chances are, you’re not able to use the webcam service for one of the following reasons:

You’re under the age of 13, or the birthday you provided to Yahoo! at the time of registration indicates that you are under 13.

You’re between the ages of 13-17, but the friend you’re trying to videoconference with is not on your Messenger List. Your birth date is used both for age verification and for security on your account.

If you entered this information incorrectly, our system might show you as younger than you really are (take it as a compliment). It’s not possible to update or change your birth date in our system, for account security reasons.

If you entered your age incorrectly when you opened your account with Yahoo!, you will need to open a new account with your correct age. We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you.

If you are using Yahoo! Messenger and a HTTP connection or you are sure that the birth date associated with your Yahoo! ID indicates that you are over the age of 18, make sure you are using the "No proxies" connection setting.

To select this setting:

Click Messenger and select Preferences.

Click Connection.

Select the "No proxies" option.

Click OK at the bottom of the window.

Close Yahoo! Messenger completely and start the program again. This should eliminate this error message.