Alphabet Inc.’s Google is limiting the targeted advertising of users younger than 18, among a series of changes by the search giant aimed at improving privacy protections for teens.

The Mountain View, California-based company said it will begin blocking advertising that targets teenagers based on data compiled about their age, gender and interests. Facebook Inc.’s Instagram recently announced a similar policy against targeting users under 18.

Google said in a blog post Tuesday 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 defaults to making videos uploaded by users between the ages of 13 and 17 private. Automatic privacy settings mean that these users’ videos can only be viewed by them or approved viewers. However, these teenagers will be able to unlock their videos for public viewing. By default, YouTube will also include reminding young users to rest and sleep at bedtime, as well as disabling automatic playback of continuous videos. 

 In search, Google stated that it is expanding its safe search function to filter explicit search results for users aged 13-18. This feature also applies to the Google Assistant on the smart display. The tool also allows users under the age of 18 to flag their images in Google search for removal. The company also stated that it will no longer collect location history for this age group. 

 Google recently stated that it will add a new data collection policy page to the Google Play Store, reflecting a feature introduced by Apple last year. Recently, the protection of children's online services in Silicon Valley has attracted a lot of attention. Apple announced last week new protections for explicit images in its Messages app and prevent the uploading of explicit or abusive images of children to iCloud Photo Library.



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