Yes I did have to do the privo verification to say that I was the parent and that I give permission for my child to use the robot, from memory that part was pretty simple and straight forward.
Because I bought it new $799USD on Amazon it comes with an automatic 1 year subscription, so I didn't have to sign up for one....I guess i'll wait and see when our subscription runs out if we really need the subscription or not. I'm tempted to wait and see if it loses any significant capabilities or not. I hear you may be able to just get a month to month subscription, which if it maintains functionality you could just do a couple of times a year to get updates, but honestly, if it helps my kid then I don't mind springing to maintain a subscription.
The getting US Google was the most difficult part of the whole process....once I managed to download the App it was pretty easy, there is a questionnaire that asks you to check of, or input what areas you want moxie to help your child with so it can tailor things more to your needs.....I noticed that I didn't check that my child needed help dealing with grief, and when she tried to talk to Moxie about our pet chicken that died, Moxie kept saying she doesn't know anything about that topic, so I wonder if the response would have been different had I checked that box?
It seems for those looking at buying second hand, you need to make sure the previous owner gives you the recovery key for your Moxie, because without that code, you can't reset it, or input your name as the mentor.
I notice with the subscription the moxie app is sending me a lot of tips and messages, so some days I get multiple messages. One good thing it sent was a printable sheet with a bunch of commands you can use with Moxie. I can scan it and share it here if someone wants to see.
