The internet giant has been accused of "grooming" children for profit after telling them they would be able switch off controls such as safety settings and app limits when they turn 13
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Google has faced a backlash from parents after it emerged the company had emailed under-13s with instructions on how to turn off parental controls when they become teenagers.
The internet giant has been accused of "grooming" children for profit after telling them they would be able switch off controls such as safety settings and app limits when they turn 13.
But the advice infuriated Melissa McKay, the president of online safety group the Digital Childhood Institute, who called out Google after it emailed her son.
"Google is asserting authority over a boundary that does not belong to them. It reframes parents as a temporary inconvenience to be outgrown and positions corporate platforms as the default replacement," she wrote on LinkedIn.
"Call it what it is. Grooming for engagement. Grooming for data. Grooming minors for profit."
Following an online uproar, Google said it would now update its settings so that parents are required to approve the controls being turned off.
Children can have Google accounts from birth, as long as they are set up and managed by their parents.
It means parents can block adult content from searches, see children’s search histories, and control screen time and app downloads on Android phones.
These settings are optional for children older than 13 and over, and Google had been emailing both the child and parent to inform them about the option to turn them off.
Rani Govender, of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said leaving children to make these decisions "can put them in harm's way".
"Every child develops differently, and parents and carers should be the ones to decide with their child when the right time is for parental controls to change and how they want to approach this as a family," she told the Telegraph.
Responding to the criticism, Google said children aged over 13 would still be able to create new accounts without parental controls.
In Britain and the US, 13 is the minimum age at which people can consent to having their data processed.
The Liberal Democrats have called for the age of consent for data processing to be raised from 13 to 16, as it is in Germany.
But the Conservatives want to go further and ban all forms of social media for under-16s.
In response to these calls, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta has now defaulted under-18s’ accounts to “teen” profiles that require parental supervision.
