Google · Google Terms of Service

Age Restrictions and Parental Consent

High severity
Share 𝕏 Share in Share

What it is

If you're under the minimum age required to manage your own Google Account, you must have your parent or legal guardian's permission to use a Google Account. 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.

Why it matters

Parents who create or authorize Google accounts for their children become legally responsible for their children's activity and any violations of Google's Terms, including content their children upload or share.

Consumer impact

Google's Terms of Service apply to every product in its ecosystem — Search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, and more — and by using these services you grant Google a broad license to use your content globally, including after you stop using the service if others have already reshared it. Google can suspend or terminate your account and remove your content at its discretion if it determines you have violated its policies, with limited advance notice in urgent cases, which poses a real risk if you rely on Google services for business or personal communications. You can export a copy of your data and manage your content permissions at any time via Google Takeout at takeout.google.com or review and delete specific content in your Google Account dashboard at myaccount.google.com.

What you can do

⚠️ These actions may provide transparency or partial mitigation but may not fully address the underlying issue. Effectiveness varies by jurisdiction and individual circumstances.
  • Close Your Account
    Visit families.google.com to set up Google Family Link, which lets parents supervise and manage their child's Google account activity, app usage, and content restrictions. You can also review and close a minor's account from the Family Link app.

Applicable agencies

  • FTC
    The FTC enforces COPPA (16 C.F.R. Part 312) and has primary jurisdiction over child data privacy violations by online services, including previously fining Google $170M for YouTube COPPA violations.
    File a complaint →

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 4, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-001895
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-001895
Captured: 2026-03-06 19:57:47 UTC | SHA-256: e6572ba743a1cf3e…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/google/google-terms-of-service/age-restrictions-and-parental-consent/
Accessed: April 4, 2026
Classification
Severity
High
Categories

Other provisions in this document