Google is currently working on designing versions of products like Chrome and YouTube specifically for children under the age of 13, according to a report from USA Today.
Pavni Diwanji, vice president of engineering at Google, says the new products will be released next year and are intended to help kids “become more than just consumers of technology, but designers as well.”
It's not clear how these products will work, but they may change their appearance or the type of data they present. In a more concrete example, Diwanji told a story about her daughter typing the word "trains" into Google Search hoping the results would be related to Thomas the Tank Engine, but ended up finding an Amtrak schedule instead.
In the US, one of the biggest issues when designing online products and services for children is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act , or COPPA. This law dictates how and where information can be collected and presented to children under the age of 13. Changes to the law that went into effect in July 2013 include multiple provisions related to privacy policy, parental controls, and security requirements for data collected from young children. Given that the vast majority of Google's revenue comes from advertising and the value of the company's ads is tied to user data, COPPA compliance will obviously be important to users and to Google (Yelp was fined $450,000 earlier this year for COPPA violations).
Google isn't the first company to try and make its products more kid-friendly. Apple introduced a new kind of Apple ID with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite's Family Sharing, a type of account that allows kids to purchase and download apps, but only with explicit supervision and permission from parents. Special accounts for kids, and products like these, will be really helpful for parents who want to protect their kids' privacy.
“We want to be careful with what we do, so that we provide parents with the right tools to monitor the use of our products by their children”, said Diwanji.
