Google launches tool to allow minors to delete photos from search

Search engine giant Google has introduced a new set of convenience for the minors and their parents. They can now delete the photographs from the search results. The company in a blog post posted on October 27, 2021 said that it is all set to launch a tool that will allow the parents and the kids who are under the age of 18 to request the pictures to be removed from the images tab. They can also request for it to no longer appear as thumbnails in a search inquiry.

The company has earlier offered ways for people to request removal of personal information along with pictures in the categories like ‘non-consensual explicit’, ‘medical’, ‘financial’ or ‘national ID’. This is now being extended to the image of minors. The blog post further mentioned that the kids and teens have to go through some unique challenges online, especially at a time when a picture of these children becomes easily available online. The company added that this will allow young people to have more control over their digital presence and where the images can be found on Search.

Here the new form will allow the users to flag the URLs of any of the images that they want it to be removed. The search engine added that the teams will be reviewing every submission and will also reach out to the user if any additional information is needed for confirmation of the requirements to be removed. But it has also been said that the process will not be removing the image completely from the internet as the people will have to contact the webmaster of the website to ask for the content to be removed.

The tool was earlier announced in the month of August, 2021 as an effort to protect the minors across its platform. Not just Google but other big tech companies are also taking similar efforts to protect the privacy of the minors.

Photo Credits: Pixabay