Google is trying to strengthen the security of minors on the Internet, with measures on personal data and potentially inappropriate content, said Tuesday the Internet giant, whose YouTube platform is regularly in the crosshairs of the authorities responsible for the protection of childhood.

"As young people spend more and more time online, parents, teachers, privacy and security experts, and policy makers are rightly looking for ways to make children's Internet browsing safer. and adolescents, "said Mindy Brooks, general manager of the" Children and Families "division at Google in a statement.

A new filter to protect minors from inappropriate content

"We are in regular contact with them to constantly adapt our products and our control tools to young audiences." On the ultra popular YouTube, videos uploaded by teens aged 13 to 17 will be in "private" mode by default. If the option is not disabled, videos can only be viewed by users chosen by the author. These minors or their parents will now also be able to request the removal of their images from Google image search results.

The issue of removing problematic content in general, from false information to compromising images, at the request of authorities or individuals, is a recurring subject of litigation for the platform. Still on the side of personal data, the history of positions will now remain deactivated, without the possibility of activating it, for all young people under the age of 18, worldwide. And to protect them from “explicit and inappropriate” content, Google will activate a filter, “SafeSearch”, on the search engine for all minors.

Parents will also soon have available "new protections to prevent the appearance of explicit content when a child uses Google Assistant on shared devices."

Advertisers will no longer have the right to target minors with ads based on age, gender or interests.

Despite strict rules against all content that sexualizes or exploits children, networks popular with young people, such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube or Instagram, are regularly criticized for not sufficiently protecting children from online predators and potentially scandals. to tarnish their reputation and deprive them of advertisers' revenue.

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