With growing technology trends come even greater concerns about child protection and security. Google, arguably the most influential tech company in the world, is attempting to reinvigorate the child tech market by creating child-specific versions of its digital products that are aimed at the under 12s.
Child-friendly versions of Google’s search platform, video sharing site YouTube and Google’s own web browser, Chrome, will be launched to cater for a demographic that is often overlooked in the tech arena, largely due to strict legislation that governs the ways companies like Google are able to collect and store children’s browsing and behavioural data.
Pavni Diwanji, Google’s vice president of engineering and the driving force behind the new development, has said that she “expects the move to be controversial” but wants child-friendly Google products to help children use tech “in a better way”.
Diwanji is adamant that parents will be “given the right tools to oversee their kids’ use of [Google’s] products”, addressing concerns from industry commentators that seemingly ‘child friendly’ products could open kids up to manipulation in terms of advertising and also breach the Federal Trade Commission’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
It’s not exactly clear when Google plans to roll out its child-friendly products, but USA Today has hinted that development could start as early as next year. Read the full article here.