Google is responding to the increasing number of younger users by developing kid-friendly versions of Chrome, YouTube and other services for children 13 and under.
Pavni Diwanji, vice president of engineering at Google and head of the initiative, said the goal is to make the search giant's products fun and safe for children, according to USA Today.
"We expect this to be controversial, but the simple truth is kids already have the technology in schools and at home," said Diwanji, mother of two daughters, ages 13 and 8. "So the better approach is to simply see to it that the tech is used in a better way."
Google currently takes in 40,000 search queries every second, which is equivalent to 1.2 trillion per year, with kids expected to be responsible for a good portion of these searches.
Companies collecting information about children under 13 years old are required under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) to get explicit permission from their parents to do so, Tech Times reported. Such permission can be obtained through written consent or by calling the company. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is tasked with enforcing these rules, having fined 20 companies so far for obtaining information about kids without their parents' knowledge or permission. Yelp is the latest of the companies to be fined, having been ordered to pay $450,000 for violating these regulations.
Maneesha Mithal, associate director of privacy and identity protection at the FTC, said the agency isn't trying to "play gotcha" to restrict how companies use technology, and that it is trying to protect kids while promoting cooperation between businesses.
"One of the great things about technology is that we should be able to create safe places for kids," Mithal said. "We don't want to stifle that as long as parents are in the driver's seat."
Diwanji says Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. have a small room called Kids Studio for employees' children to tinker with different prototypes for projects, USA Today reported.
Giving kids the chance to play with these projects shows that children see the internet differently than adults do. One example was her daughter asking her to tell Google about Thomas the Tank Engine after typing in "trains" in the search engine and, instead, found a list of Amtrak train schedules.
While a specific timeline was not provided for the launch of Google's kid-friendly products, Diwanji said her team will start working on the new products early next year, Tech Times reported.
The initiative is the latest Google has started to make its services kid-friendly, with previous efforts including Maker Camp, Doodle 4 Google and Made with Code.
