An expert has slammed Google for reportedly ‘grooming’ children after a disturbing email sent on their 13th birthday was revealed.
The tech giant has come under fire after it was revealed that children were being emailed ahead of their 13th birthday with information on how they can turn off the parental controls on their account.
According to reports, in the email, it details how the child will soon be able to ‘graduate’ from supervision and disable some safety settings.
Melissa McKay, who is the president of online safety group Digital Childhood Institute, raised alarm bells by taking to LinkedIn to say: “Google emailed my youngest child today to tell him he is almost 13 and eligible to remove parental controls.
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“Read that again. Slowly. A trillion dollar corporation is directly contacting every child to tell them they are old enough to ‘graduate’ from parental supervision. The email explains how a child can remove those controls themselves, without parental consent or involvement.
“Google is asserting authority over a boundary that does not belong to them. It reframes parents as a temporary inconvenience to be outgrown and positions corporate platforms as the default replacement.
“Call it what it is. Grooming for engagement. Grooming for data. Grooming minors for profit. In nearly ten years as an online safety advocate, this is among the most predatory corporate practices I have seen.
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“Absolutely reprehensible. Corporations should stay the hell away from our kids.”
Along with her post, McKay shared screenshots of the email her son had received, which read: “Your birthday’s coming up. That means when you turn 13, you can choose to update your account to get more access to Google apps and services.”
This prompted a response on social media from others, with one user writing: “What. The. Actual?!? That's outrageous.”
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Another said: “This is alarming and so important to highlight.”
And a third person added: “Childrens data is a future revenue source. More needs to be done to ensure parental control alerts around ‘coming of age’ data natives to offer better education around their individual data rights, cyber harms and safe data interactions. It's time for long overdue progress.”
In response to the controversy, Ofcom said: “Under our rules, tech firms must take a safety-first approach in how their services are designed and operated, including age checks for adult material and protecting children from harmful content.
“We’re keeping a close eye on companies, and those that don’t comply with these duties can expect enforcement action.”
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In a statement to UNILAD Tech, a Google spokesperson said: “Building on our commitment to family safety, we’re making a planned update to require formal parental approval for teens to leave a supervised account. These changes better ensure protections stay in place until both the parent and teen feel ready for the next step. This builds on our existing practice of emailing both the parent and child before the change to facilitate family conversations about the account transition.”