Google wants to make it easier for kids and teenagers to remove photos of themselves from its search platform.
On Tuesday, Google announced a slew of new features designed to “give kids and teens a safer online experience.”
According to the search giant, the company will soon roll out a new policy that enables anyone under the age of 18, including their parents and guardians, to request that their image be removed from Google Image search results.
Google already offers the ability for users to request that their personal information, including images, be removed from search results. However, such removal requests must fit into specific takedown categories such as “non-consensual explicit imagery” or “doxxing content.” Google’s new policy appears to streamline the process for teenagers and allow removal requests for images of any users under 18.
As Google points out in its announcement, this won’t remove the images from the internet. But, without the most popular search engine in the world serving it up in the search results, it certainly will be much less visible.
In addition to this Google Search policy announcement, the company introduced other updates to safeguard young people on the internet. Most of these other policy changes regard default settings on accounts belonging to those under 18. For example, on YouTube, new videos will default to the private upload settings for teens.
Google will also be rolling out features from Family Link to users under 18, as well. Family Link is a Google service which allows parents of children under 13, who cannot yet have their own Google accounts, to monitor their usage. SafeSearch, which automatically filters out explicit search results for Family Link users, will now be turned on by default for users under the age of 18.
Online platforms have recently been focusing on digital wellbeing for children who are now growing up with the internet in their daily lives. Facebook, for example, has been working on an Instagram specifically for children. TikTok also recently rolled out restrictions on user accounts belonging to children under the age of 18.
