Google is limiting the targeted advertising based on the age, gender or interests of people under 18.
The company would also turn off its ‘location history’ feature, which tracks location data, for users under 18 globally. It will further expand the types of age-sensitive ad categories that are blocked for users up to 18 and will turn on safe searching filters for users up to that age.
Google said in a blog post that it’s also planning privacy changes across video site YouTube, standard Search, Google Assistant, location history, the Google Play Store and Google Workspace for Education.
On YouTube, the company by default will make private the videos uploaded by users ages 13 to 17. The automated privacy setting means videos of those users can only be watched by them or approved viewers. These teenagers, however, will be able to unlock their videos to be viewed publicly. YouTube will also, by default, include reminders for younger users to take a break and to go to sleep at bedtime as well as disable the autoplay of consecutive videos.
In search, Google said it is expanding its SafeSearch feature to filter out explicit results for users who are 13 to 18. This feature will also apply to Google Assistant on smart screens. The tool also lets users under 18 flag images of themselves that appear in Google Search for removal. The company also said it would no longer collect location history for the age group.