Search giant Google, will no longer be ad targeting of children based on their age, gender, or interest as part of new series of measures designed to protect kids under 18 using its services.
Other change too was introduced where anyone under the age of 18 to ask their images to be removed from Google’s image results, while YouTube uploads from children will also gradually default to the most private setting.
The changes were similar to what Instagram introduced last week, where Instagram accounts for under 16 will be set by default, meaning users will have to choose to make their profile public or not. It also banned advertisement targeted at children based on their interests or their activity, although it still allowed them to be targeted based on age, gender, and location.
Google said that introducing the changes were in compliance based on the regulations applied in a few places across the globe. Also, they want to be consistent with their product experiences and user controls across the globe.
Google says it is expanding safeguards to monitor age sensitive ad categories from being shown to teens. Users will get more control over the spread of their images, as Google cautions that it will not entirely remove the image from the web.
They will be also adding many more other tweaks to its services for children. SafeSearch will now be on by default for users under the age of 18, after previously being on by default for users under 13. The feature, which blocks explicit results from appearing in search, is also coming to Google’s web browser on smart displays. Users under the age of 18 will also no longer be able to turn Location History on in their Google Account settings (Google says the setting is already off by default for all accounts). Assistant-enabled smart devices will also be able to block news, podcasts, and access to the web in the coming months.
The new features are being introduced on different time scales. The option to request that images be removed from Google’s image search, as well as changes to default YouTube video privacy settings, will roll out in the coming weeks.
