Gracious, haven’t the ‘don’t be evil’ people been busy under the radar, being what most rational people would believe is exactly that!
In most of this country, outside of California and the small cabal of uber liberal states who still feel that children belong entirely to the collective, setting boundaries and determining what one’s kiddies are exposed to has been a long-time responsibility of what’s known as ‘parenthood.’ It is not a privilege awarded to you by the benevolent overseers in authority. It comes with the birth of your child and continues legally until they reach the age of majority – 18 in most instances.
But, in effect, practically in a lesser capacity for their whole lives. Parents are always supposed to be the wiser ones who, by virtue of their (insert a favorite woke expression here for exactly the opposite effect) lived experience, are able to, once they’ve turned Junior loose, still offer sage advice. Such as. ‘Oooh, I wouldn’t do that‘ when asked.
When Junior is young, however, it is incumbent upon Mom and Dad to raise him and his broodmates, should there be any, to the best of their ability, exercising the parental controls they deem appropriate to age and emotional development.
This is a parental prerogative.
It’s tough to maintain the height of the security wall you want around your child at any given age, thanks to the everyday conveniences (?) and technical challenges of modern life. One of those aids to keep young eyes from peering where a parent feels they don’t belong are the age restrictions they can impose on various social media apps, cell phones, and cable viewing. Parents do have the latitude to cut some young eyeballs off at the pass before they get drawn into things that can turn out to be devastatingly harmful.
One was under the impression that one of those tools was available on Google. A parent sets the Chrome browser up with the restrictions, age, viewing, etc, that match what and where a parent is comfortable with their young child browsing.
It protects them from untoward solicitations or the horror of discovering the cruelties of the world too early.
This is a parental prerogative.
Who knew Google didn’t see it that way?
Well, I guess no one, until a young guy let his mom know that Google had thoughtfully emailed him that, now that he’d turned 13, what his parents had set as boundaries for his browsing didn’t count for jack s**t anymore.
The little guy was now a free man and could roam the big, wide web as he wished. Kind of wild, huh?
“Google emailed my youngest child today to tell him he is almost 13 and eligible to remove parental controls… A trillion dollar corporation is directly contacting every child to tell them they are old enough to “graduate” from parental supervision.”https://t.co/KfIbmYRS2m
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 11, 2026
Needless to say, once his very surprised mother, Melissa McKay, got over her shock, she was pretty pissed at Google’s sneaky, thief-in-the-night, underhanded end-around.
Google emailed my youngest child today to tell him he is almost 13 and eligible to remove parental controls.
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.
And she shared screenshots of the friendly liberation email her son got from the nice groomers at Google.
Now, here is where there is a bit of a technical legal wrinkle, thanks to – you guessed it – the federal government.
In 1998, another FOR THE CHILDREN piece of legislation was passed, called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), but it wasn’t a response at the time so much to online predation as it was the collection, buying, and selling of the private data that makes these innerwebs browsers lucrative.
COPPA was enacted to prevent data mining of information from minors under the age of 13.
,
It was not designed to protect children from viewing particular types of content wherever they might go online. It was never designed to be a parental filtering or monitoring device.
From the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website:
11. Will the COPPA Rule keep my child from accessing inappropriate materials, such as pornography?
No. COPPA is meant to give parents control over the online collection, use, or disclosure of personal information from children. It was not designed to protect children from viewing particular types of content wherever they might go online. If you are concerned about your children seeing inappropriate materials online, you may want to consider a filtering program or an Internet Service Provider that offers tools to help screen out or restrict access to such material. Information about such tools is available at ConnectSafely.org and Stay Safe Online’s advice about parental controls, and from operating system developers.
And the cut-off age in the legislation is 13.
Oh.
HELLO
This is the genesis of the Google email, however infuriating it might be. For all the foaming at the mouth outrage, and there is plenty in the comments on LinkedIn, Google is technically within its rights and under no obligation per the legislation to continue the filter after the child reaches the legal age to drop them.
What is really stenchy is Google’s less-than-gentle nudge to said child get out there and browse away, so they can start data mining the crap out of your kid and make a fortune off every aspect of his little life.
What to do as a parent?
There’s an interesting question. The first thing is to educate yourself, as so many other parents in these threads were, about the fact that the Google blocks were not for you to control. And who knew, but there it is.
And then immediately start checking into filtering programs, etc, or have a good talk with your kids if you feel they’re of age and mature enough to spread their wings.
Your call.
There is a mostly Democratic Senate amendment to COPPA that has now been read twice and referred to committee that adds ‘teen’ to the mix and some other changes. That might go nowhere.
In the meantime, ‘don’t be evil’ gets a little massage job as they skirt the edge, making bazillions.
Parents have to stay on top of these things…somehow.
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