How Your Child’s Google Account Changes When They Turn 13

The Internet is a wild place and not particularly child-friendly. Unfortunately, it’s very impractical to keep your children completely off the web. This is where family accounts come in handy: parents can set up supervised accounts for their children, giving them access to essential apps and services, without allowing unrestricted access to the entire network. It’s often imperfect and kids find workarounds for the guardrails, but still; it’s better than nothing.

Each company offering a family account handles things differently. Meta, for example, continues to update its policies following criticism that its apps are addictive and harmful to children. These days, teens face a number of limitations that they didn’t have before: while users 16 and older can remove these limitations if they wish, those under 16 need a parent’s consent to do so. This means that things like screen time, uploading to Instagram, and DMs are all blocked and controlled by the parent for users 15 and under.

If you are the administrator of a Google family account, you can assume that you have a similar level of control over your children’s Google accounts. Maybe you imagine it’s like Meta: when they’re old enough, maybe around 16, they can decide for themselves how much access they have to their account, but until then, you’ll have the final say. It turns out that’s not the case. In fact, you only have this control until your child turns 13.

Google Accounts are available to users 13 and older

I first discovered this issue from this LinkedIn post by user Melissa McKay. A frustrated McKay explained how she received an email from Google warning her that her youngest child will soon have the ability to remove supervision from his Google account once he turns 13. Based on the attached screenshots, the email states that once the child turns 13, they will be able to access more Google apps and services and customize their Google account to make it their own. McKay summed up his discontent as follows: “Call it what it is. Processing for engagement. Processing for data. Processing of minors for profit.”

The post currently has over 6,400 reactions on LinkedIn, which is relatively viral for the platform. As I don’t have children, this is the first time I’ve heard of these rules. But a quick search brings up Google’s official support document on the subject. Indeed, when a child turns 13 (or reaches the applicable age due to country or regional law), they have the choice of continuing under parental supervision or managing their own Google account.

Here’s what this means for your child:

• They will no longer have access to YouTube Kids, but will have access to YouTube in general. Google will also disable supervised YouTube experiences.

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

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

And here’s what that means for you, as a parent:

• You can no longer configure monitoring features such as downtime, application blocking, or mandatory location sharing. (Your child can choose to share their location if they wish.)

• You can no longer see your child’s transactions or receive notifications when they make new purchases.

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

• You cannot block their access to Wallet passes.

Of course, these changes depend on your child’s decision to remove supervision. They may choose to keep it and, as such, you may continue to monitor and administer your child’s account. However, I imagine many 13-year-olds will choose to remove supervision unless they are particularly supportive. As such, you effectively lose control when your child turns 13.

Interestingly, Google says that once a child removes supervision without your permission, their device is locked “temporarily.” It’s not clear if this means the parent device needs to unlock the device, or if it’s just a cool down period, and the device will unlock on its own. I reached out to Google for further clarity here.

Not all Google services are available to minors

Even though Google allows children to lift restrictions from the age of 13, they do not have this option. total access to all Google services. According to this support document, certain key age-restricted content and services require users to be 18 years of age or older, including:

That’s it, at least according to Google’s security document. I’ve reached out to Google again to see what other restrictions are in place on accounts ages 13-18, and will update this article when I know more.

Google changes its family age policy

However, all this is changing. Kate Charlet, Google’s global head of privacy, safety and security, also posted on LinkedIn, acknowledging the current policy and saying Google had changes in the works. Soon, Google will require both the child And the parent agrees to lift supervision. This should help parents who aren’t ready to let their 13-year-old child access YouTube and other standard Google services without their permission.

Of course, for parents who have already received an email that their children are reaching the “digital age of consent,” that may not provide much comfort.