Children below 13 years old will be able to hold Google accounts. This move will, however, call for Google’s lawyers to be on their best to overcome the legal hurdles that are bound to arise. Google will be creating special accounts specifically for kids, which among other things will help parents monitor their kids and their online activities.
When opening a Google accounts, it is usually easy for a kid to lie about his or her age. The current measures by Google will deny anyone detected to be below 13 years the opportunity to sign up and open an account. There are, however, no measures that can tell if a user is lying about age during the sign up.
In the new kids-specific accounts, parents will be involved in the setting up of the account. Parents will, thus, be able to put restrictions on how the accounts can be used. They will also have the option of setting preferences on the information they wish Google to collect and keep about their children.
Due to COPPA rules, retaining records and data on children is not easy. There are strict limitations to parental consent. Advertising on these children accounts is also tightly regulated. This means that Google will have several legal issues to deal with.
Most other online companies including Facebook have a minimum age limit of 13 years. Facebook CEO, however, says that he is welcome to the idea of fighting for the COPPA rules to be changed to allow children on Facebook.
Many people feel that education in the current highly competitive world should begin as early as possible. Most people, therefore, do not object to online presence of children as long as there is appropriate regulation that protects the children from inappropriate online content.
