How Your Child’s Google Account Will Change When They Turn 13.

The internet is a wild place, and not particularly child-friendly. Unfortunately, completely shielding children from the internet is extremely impractical. This is where family accounts come in handy: parents can set up supervised accounts for their children, granting them access to essential apps and services without allowing them unrestricted access to the entire internet. This isn’t always ideal, and children find ways around the restrictions, but it’s still better than nothing.

Each company offering family accounts approaches this issue differently. For example, Meta is constantly updating its policies in response to criticism about how addictive and harmful their apps can be for children. These days , teens face a number of restrictions they didn’t have before : while users over 16 can lift these restrictions at will, those under 16 require parental consent. This means that things like screen time, Instagram live streams, and private messages are blocked and controlled by parents for users under 15.

If you’re the administrator of a Google Family account, you might assume you have a similar level of control over your children’s Google accounts. You might imagine it like Meta: once they reach a certain age, say 16, they’ll be able to decide what level of access they have to their account, but until then, you have the final say. As it turns out, that’s not the case. In fact, you only have that level of control until your child turns 13.

Google accounts are available to users aged 13 and older.

I first encountered this issue thanks to a post by LinkedIn user Melissa Mackay. Mackay, frustrated, shared how she received an email from Google informing her that her youngest child would soon be able to turn off monitoring of their Google account once they turned 13. According to the attached screenshots, the email stated that after turning 13, the child would be able to access more Google apps and services, as well as customize their Google account. Mackay expressed her frustration this way: “Call it what it is. Preparing for exploitation. Preparing for data exploitation. Preparing minors to be exploited for profit.”

This post currently has over 6,400 reactions on LinkedIn, which is quite fast for this platform. Since I don’t have children, this is the first I’ve heard of these rules. But a quick search reveals Google’s official support document on the issue . Indeed, when a child turns 13 (or the corresponding age according to the laws of their country or region), they are given a choice: either continue using their account under parental supervision or manage their own Google account.

Here’s what this means for your child:

• They will no longer have access to YouTube Kids, but will still have access to regular YouTube. Google will also disable controlled YouTube features.

• They will be able to add payment cards to Google Wallet or Google Pay, as well as remove cards from their phone or watch.

• They will be able to use these cards for contactless payments, in-app payments, website payments via Google Pay, autofill, and various payments in Google services such as the Play Store and YouTube.

Here’s what this means for you as their parents:

• It’s no longer possible to configure control features such as disabling apps, blocking apps, or mandating location sharing. (Your child can choose whether to share their location if they choose.)

• You will no longer be able to view your child’s transactions or receive notifications about new purchases they make.

• You cannot add or remove payment cards for your child.

• You can’t block them from accessing Wallet passes.

Of course, these changes depend on your child’s decision to turn off supervision. They can choose to leave it on, and therefore you can continue to monitor and manage your child’s account. However, I would imagine that many 13-year-olds will choose to turn off supervision unless they are particularly comfortable with it. So, you effectively lose control when your child turns 13.

Interestingly, Google states that once a child disables parental supervision without your permission, their device is “temporarily locked.” It’s unclear whether this means the parent’s device must unlock, or whether it’s simply a waiting period after which the device unlocks itself. I’ve reached out to Google for clarification on this matter.

Not all Google services are available to minors.

Although Google allows children to remove restrictions once they reach 13, they don’t have full access to all Google services. According to this support document , there are a number of key content resources and services with age restrictions that require users to be at least 18 years old to access, including:

• Age-restricted YouTube videos

• AdSense

• Google Ads

That’s it, at least according to Google’s security documentation. I’ve contacted Google again to clarify what other restrictions apply to accounts of users aged 13 to 18, and I’ll update this article as soon as I learn more.

Google is changing its policy regarding content age in FamilyLink.

However, things are changing now. Kate Sharlet, Google’s head of global privacy, security, and data protection, also posted on LinkedIn acknowledging the existing policy and stating that Google is working on changes. Google will soon require both child and parent consent to remove controls. This should help parents who are hesitant to allow their 13-year-old to access standard YouTube and other Google services without their permission.

Of course, for parents who have already received an email informing them that their children have reached the “age of consent for digital technology,” this is unlikely to bring any comfort.

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