Google reverses key parental control policy
Google announced Monday that the company is reversing its longstanding practice of allowing minors supervised by their parents via Family Link to unilaterally opt-out of those settings upon turning 13.
Soon, if a teen wants to manage their own account, it require parental approval. A spokesperson for Google told Mashable that the policy goes into effect globally this week.
"These changes better ensure protections stay in place until both the parent and teen feel ready for the next step," Kate Charlet, Google's head of global privacy, safety, and security, wrote in a LinkedIn post about the change.
The Google spokesperson said the new policy had been planned for some time. Still, it was announced soon after an online child safety advocate drew viral attention to the company's previous policy in a viral Linkedin post. As of this story's publication, the post had elicited more than 600 comments and received 375,000 impressions.
Melissa McKay, president of the advocacy organization Digital Childhood Institute, wrote the post after receiving an email notification that her 12-year-old son would soon be able to adjust the parental controls she'd set for him through Google's Family Link product. Mashable reviewed the email, which McKay described as short and vague.
In her opinion, it failed to explain the changes being made to her son's account or include appropriately clarifying links.
McKay, who researched and authored a 2025 complaint to the Federal Trade Commission against Google regarding its youth safety practices, added that she would've skipped over the email had she not already been looking into the company's policies.
The email noted that her son would receive a similar notification. McKay asked her son to read that message and discovered that it linked to information about how he could remove parental supervision once he turned 13, without his parent's consent. McKay said she did not receive the same information; the link in her email explained age requirements for Google accounts.
In the email sent to her son, which Mashable reviewed and Google did not dispute, the company acknowledges that he will turn 13 soon and can update his account to access more Google products and services. As of this story's publication, the resource explains that "[c]hildren decide when to update their Google Account."
"In nearly ten years as an online safety advocate, this is among the most predatory corporate practices I have seen," McKay wrote in her LinkedIn post.
According to Google's own Family Link resource, when a child transitions into managing their own account, parents will no longer be able to set up downtime, allow or block apps, or find their child's transactions in Family Link. Teens with control over their own Google account will also have wide-ranging use of Google Wallet and Pay, including when using a card added to their profile prior to their 13th birthday.
McKay welcomed the company's new policy but believes far more reform is needed to protect children online from what she described as corporate exploitation.