Google – Under 13’s Supervised Accounts
Google have once again found themselves in murky waters. You may be aware that a parent can create a Google account for under 13’s, thereby letting Google know that this is a young child and therefore restrict some services. That account is supervised, it is managed by the parent, so far so good.
But until last week I didn’t know that on the child’s 13th birthday (in accordance with the DOB entered at the account creation stage), the child is sent an email from Google basically saying that they are old enough to turn off supervision, giving them instructions how to do so, and WITHOUT informing their parents, overriding any parental decision.
I only know this because I saw a post on LinkedIn, that post went viral and was picked up by the media. To be fair to Google they responded very quickly, but only due to public outcry, and the decision to turn off parental supervision is now firmly in the hands of parents, yet the policy to not empower parents with the decision has been in place for years, astonishing!
It might be worth letting your parents know about this, a lot of parents I speak to don’t know that there is an under 13’s option, and they definitely won’t know if their child has turned 13 and supervision settings have been disabled. I have put some links below to help:
- Create a Google account for your child under 13
- LinkedIn – Google emailed my youngest child today to tell him he is almost 13 and eligible to remove parental controls.
- LinkedIn – Google changes their policy for parental supervision.
Learn and Thrive – Videos for Young People with Downs Syndrome and Other SEN
My good friend and Online Safety Specialist (SEND) Traci Gregory shared a wonderful YouTube channel for young people with Downs Syndrome and SEN. What caught my attention was the online safety introduction video which I think is superb and I hope Learn and Thrive create some more. Learn and Thrive is a UK national charity who provide educational resources for children and young people with Down’s Syndrome and other special educational needs.
Here is their Online Safety – Introduction video on YouTube.
Ads Coming to ChatGPT
We’ve all heard it, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” This has been the mantra, particularly for social media, since the mid 2000’s and it’s something we teach children in school, often related to their digital footprint, where our personal (and sometimes private) information is collected and sold on to marketing agencies.
I wondered how long the free tier of ChatGPT would last, it appears not very long at all as it now appears that OpenAI need to start making a profit, and one of the ways will be with ads and a new lower-paid tier called ChatGPT Go (which will also have ads).
Lots of children and young people are using ChatGPT and in some cases are asking some very personal and private questions, so if you are teaching about their digital footprint any time soon it’s worth bearing this one in mind. Apart from the fact that any GenAI model will retain the prompts and use those prompts for further training, equally important is that, unlike many social platforms, OpenAI says that they will not be selling information onto advertising agencies, but ads will be tailored by their prompts.
See here for a further explanation on the BBC website – ChatGPT to carry adverts for some users.
Secondary Schools – Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition
Samsung are running a competition for secondary schools/students and it looks amazing. Quote “Put your students’ design thinking skills to the test and create a tech-for-good solution to a real-world problem and be in with the chance of winning tech, mentoring, work experience and their idea on the big Samsung screen in Piccadilly Circus” Unquote. Wow!!
There are 3 categories: smarter sport, greener future and safer online.
For more information – Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition.
Social Media Ban for Under 16’s in the UK?
It has been talked about for years, Australia implemented it in December 2025, but will it happen in the UK? Is a ban a realistic solution to prevent harm? Personally I’m not so sure. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I wish social media didn’t exist at all and I’m sure many schools, particularly DSL’s, would agree. But an outright ban says to me, “We know social media can be bad so let’s ban the kids”, rather than, “We know social media can be bad so let’s put more scrutiny on the companies”, which is exactly what the Online Safety Act has done. That’s an overly-simplified argument but the point stands: a ban targets the victims.
This week over 60 MP’s have called on Keir Starmer to follow Australia and impose a ban, and the Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the Online Safety Act which would apply film-style age ratings to social media platforms.
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this, I suspect many will be waiting to see how successful the ban in Australia is going and if you read the media articles it appears to be quite positive. Since the ban on 10th December social media companies have collectively deactivated 4.7 million suspected under 16 accounts, Meta alone has deactivated half a million across Facebook, Instagram and Threads, and some young people are reporting that they feel free since the ban kicked in. On the flip side many have managed to circumvent the age-assurance measures easily and others have simply moved to other, non-regulated social media apps, which has the potential to risk the increase of harm.
It isn’t as easy as a simple ban, no matter how much people want it, but will 2026 be the year that social media gets banned and phones get a statutory ban in schools? The debate rages on, who knows!
For Parents – What I Wish My Parents or Carers Knew
The Children’s Commissioner has put together a fantastic guide for parents and carers. At around 26 pages it goes into a lot of depth including:
- Screen time.
- When bad things happen.
- Artificial intelligence.
- Conversation starters.
- Actions to take checklist.
- And much more.
Download the Children’s Commissioner – What I wish my parents and carers knew guide, at the bottom of the page you will find a PDF download and an activity pack.
