As more kids and teens are given an earlier exposure to the internet for study and play, parents, educators, child safety and privacy experts, and policymakers are rightly concerned about how to keep young users safe. Google announced a series of updates to their policies and products to improve the digital well-being of users under 18.
More control over one’s digital footprint
One update is related to the search bars. Minors are given more control over their digital footprint. The new policy enables anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, to request the removal of their images from Google Image results.
Although removing an image from Search doesn’t remove it from the web, this change will help give young people more control of their images online.
Default SafeSearch location history settings
The default setting of users under 18 will be changed to SafeSearch, which filters out explicit content in Google’s search results for all your queries across images, videos, and websites.
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Location History will be switched off by default, with no option to be switched on. Targeted ads that are based on age, gender and interests of the under 18 users will be blocked.
Read more about the changes that Google is making at the site here.
