Most of the world is now online, even children. While access to the internet is beneficial for a child’s growth and development, it is not without risks–bad actors prey on the internet and children may unwittingly access age-inappropriate content.
Google, in its mission to promote digital responsibility and internet safety, has a slew of simple tools and solutions that provide parents an easy way to protect their children online. Here are some of these:
Family Link is a parental controls app that allows parents to manage their child’s account and data settings. By linking the devices the children are using, parents can set screen timeouts, keep track of their digital activity, help change or reset their passwords if they forget it, guide them towards age-appropriate content, edit their personal information, or even delete their account if they feel it necessary.
Be Internet Awesome is a program and a portal that teaches children the importance of digital responsibility. Through its interactive games, downloadable modules, and an online show, parents, educators, and kids learn how to be smart, alert, brave, kind, and strong online.
Lessons include sharing responsibly, being kind online, recognizing red flags and scams, securing personal information and privacy, and communicating their online concerns with a trusted adult.
As its name suggests, YouTube Kids, is the kid-friendly version of the video sharing platform. It uses a mix of automated filters built by YouTube’s engineering teams, human reviews, and feedback from parents so only age-appropriate content will be available for viewing.
Supervised Experience on YouTube
For families with teens and tweens, YouTube Kids may be too young for their growing minds. This is why YouTube introduced the supervised experience. The feature allows young viewers to watch content from the regular app–YouTube and YouTube Music–but under parental supervision and control.
With a supervised account, parents select a content setting that limits the videos and music children under 13 can find and play. Supervised accounts also change the features they can use, the default account settings, and the ads they see.
The Google Play Store is host to millions and millions of apps from around the world and it can be hard to find apps that are not only fun but also educational for growing children. This is why the Play Store introduced the Kids category that presents a curated selection of teacher-approved apps for various age groups.
Here, children can learn a new language, early math skills, and play games that are appropriate for their age.
SafeSearch is a setting you can toggle on and off using your Google account. It helps you filter explicit content from your Google Search results. Explicit results include sexually explicit content like pornography, violence, and gore.
This is helpful for parents who want to keep their children’s searches safe while allowing them to explore the breadth of content available online.
Go to safety.google to know more on how you can be safer and more secure online.
