Google does not allow children under 13 to create accounts without parental approval via Family Link, and does not serve them personalized ads — but older minors (13-17) may still have their data collected and used for certain purposes.
Children under 13 cannot have Google accounts without parental consent via Family Link and are not shown personalized ads, but teenagers aged 13 and older are treated more like adults and may have their browsing, location, and activity data collected and used for Google's services.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Children and Minors Data Protections and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →While baseline COPPA protections exist for under-13 users, teenagers aged 13-17 remain subject to significant data collection and may not have equivalent protections, raising child safety and regulatory compliance concerns.
1. REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly engages COPPA (16 CFR Part 312), enforced by the FTC, which prohibits knowing collection of personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. EU GDPR Art. 8 sets the digital consent age at 16 (or lower by member state — minimum 13), requiring parental consent for under-16 users in most EU countries. UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code) imposes additional obligations for services likely to be accessed by under-18s. California's Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) imposes obligations for services accessed by minors under 18. 2.
Compliance intelligence locked
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Watcher: regulatory citations. Professional: full compliance memo.