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Google moves to reinforce child safety with AI age detection tool
Google will begin using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are of the appropriate age for its products, a move aimed at strengthening age-appropriate safeguards.
American tech giant Google has announced that it will begin using artificial intelligence to determine whether users are of the appropriate age for its products, a move aimed at strengthening age-appropriate safeguards.
In the announcement, made on Thursday last week, the multinational also said it would be rolling out a new "sensitive content" warning feature in Google Messages. This feature will be opt-in for adults, managed through Android settings, and opt-out for users under 18 with parental controls for supervised accounts.
“As we continue to find new ways to deliver age-appropriate safeguards, one of the most complex challenges is understanding the age of the user,” said Google in the update.
“This year, we’ll begin testing a machine learning-based age estimation model, which will help us estimate whether a user is over or under 18 so that we can apply protections to help provide more age-appropriate experiences.”
Google says the age estimation model will use existing data about users, including the websites they visit, the types of videos they watch on YouTube, and the length of time they've had an account, to determine their age.
If the model detects that a user may be underage, Google will notify them that it has changed some of their settings and offer information on how to verify their age with a selfie, credit card or government ID.
The tech giant says it will apply its existing safety features to underage accounts, including its SafeSearch filter, which helps remove explicit content from search results.
It will also restrict content on YouTube that may not be appropriate for under-18s.
As part of its commitment to improving family-focused controls, Google says it will update its 'Family Link' to bring the most important tools and resources for managing screen time to the forefront, making it easier to manage multiple children's online experiences across their Android and Chrome devices.
Google Family Link is designed to give parents the tools they need to create healthy digital habits for their children while respecting their choices with technology.
“We’re also adding capabilities to Family Link that help children stay focused in class by minimising distractions from their personal devices…we’ll start rolling out School Time to Android phones and tablets for parents to automatically limit or adjust phone functionality and restrict app access during school hours,” said the firm.
With these updates, parents will be able to add contacts directly to their child’s device and restrict phone calls and text conversations to only those contacts.
“These parent-approved contacts can help foster safer and more intentional connections,” noted Google.
In Kenya, mobile phones remain the primary medium through which over 90 percent of the more than 23 million internet users access the web. Smartphones are easily accessible to children, who tend to be more tech-savvy and quick to adopt new technologies.
Latest official data shows that the number of smartphones in active use in the country stood at 37.4 million at the end of September last year, a 6.3 percent increase from the 35.2 million recorded in June the same year, in a quarter in which Kenyans abandoned the active use of 200,000 feature phones, leading to a 0.6 percent decline in usage to 30.7 million.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has developed a comprehensive set of regulatory guidelines to protect the safety of children online, following the increasing dangers of prowling cyber criminals.
