Google · Google Terms of Service

Age Requirement and Minors

Medium severity
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What it is

Children who are considered minors in their country can only use Google services with a parent or guardian's permission, and the parent or guardian becomes legally responsible for anything the child does on Google's services.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

Parents and guardians who allow their minor children to use Google services assume full legal responsibility for the child's conduct, including potential liability for content violations, unauthorized purchases, or account misuse — a significant parental liability exposure that most users may not be aware of.

How other platforms handle this

Amazon Medium

No Unsolicited Email. You may not use the Services to send unsolicited email, including junk mail, advertising, or promotional material, to individuals who have not agreed to receive such emails from you. You may not use the Services to operate any mailing list that does not comply with all applicab...

Netflix Medium

Unless otherwise explicitly authorized, you agree not to: ...(ix) engage in any of the foregoing in connection with the use, creation, development, modification, prompting, fine-tuning, training, testing, benchmarking or validation of any machine learning tool, model, system, algorithm, product or o...

Netflix Medium

The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household unless otherwise allowed by your subscription plan.

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Why it matters (compliance & risk perspective)

This clause makes parents and guardians legally responsible for their minor child's activity on all Google services — including any content posted, purchases made, or violations committed — which has significant financial and legal implications for families.

View original clause language
If you're a minor in your country, you must have your parent or legal guardian's permission to use our services. Please have your parent or legal guardian read these terms with you. If you're a parent or legal guardian, and you allow your child to use the services, then these terms apply to you and you're responsible for your child's activity on the services.

Institutional analysis (Compliance & legal intelligence)

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly engages COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. §§6501-6506, 16 CFR Part 312), enforced by the FTC, which requires verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13. GDPR Art. 8 sets the age of digital consent at 16 (with member state derogation to 13) and requires parental consent for children below that threshold, enforced by EU DPAs. The UK Age Appropriate Design Code (Children's Code) imposes additional standards for services likely accessed by children under 18, enforced by the ICO. California's Age Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) similarly applies.

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Applicable agencies

  • FTC
    The FTC enforces COPPA (16 CFR Part 312) and has primary jurisdiction over children's online privacy violations, including failure to obtain verifiable parental consent for users under 13.
    File a complaint →

Applicable regulations

CFAA
United States Federal
DMCA
United States Federal
DSA
European Union

Provision details

Document information
Document
Google Terms of Service
Entity
Google
Document last updated
March 24, 2026
Tracking information
First tracked
March 6, 2026
Last verified
April 9, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-002355
Document ID
CA-D-00014
Evidence Provenance
Source URL
Wayback Machine
SHA-256
e6572ba743a1cf3e3a97ba741c3f6e2415a5ef12b0d09e2695e992d27e0c7b3d
Verified
✓ Snapshot stored   ✓ Change verified
How to Cite
ConductAtlas Policy Archive
Entity: Google | Document: Google Terms of Service | Record: CA-P-002355
Captured: 2026-03-06 19:57:47 UTC | SHA-256: e6572ba743a1cf3e…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/google/google-terms-of-service/age-requirement-and-minors/
Accessed: April 28, 2026
Classification
Severity
Medium
Categories

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