Tech giant Google has announced a series of online safety measures, especially targeting teenagers and children to make internet browsing safe for them.
One of these features is making it easier for families to request the removal of a child’s photos from image search requests.
“Technology has helped kids and teens during the pandemic stay in school through lockdowns and maintain connections with family and friends. As kids and teens spend more time online, parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policy makers are rightly concerned about how to keep them safe. We engage with these groups regularly, and share these concerns” said Mindy Brooks GM, Kids and Family.
“In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce a new policy that enables anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from Google Image results. Of course, removing an image from Search doesn’t remove it from the web, but we believe this change will help give young people more control of their images online” she said.
In the coming weeks and months new changes to Google Accounts will be made for people under 18
YouTube: The default upload setting to the most private option available for teens ages 13-17 will be changed. Digital wellbeing features, provide safeguards and education about commercial content will be added
Search: In the coming months, Google will turn SafeSearch on for existing users under 18 and make this the default setting for teens setting up new accounts.
Assistant: To prevent mature content from surfacing during a child’s experience with Google Assistant on shared devices, they will be introducing new default protections.
Play: Building on efforts like content ratings, and “Teacher-approved apps” for quality kids content, a new safety section will be launched that will let parents know which apps follow our Families policies. Apps will be required to disclose how they use the data they collect in greater detail, making it easier for parents to decide if the app is right for their child before they download it. A safeguards will be added to prevent age-sensitive ad categories from being shown to teens, and will block ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of people under 18
