WTAF, Google?!

[buzzycrumbhunger]

Seen in the wild:

[sop]

1. Perhaps it's time to follow Australia's lead, banning children under 16 from having social media accounts.

"Australia implemented a law in December 2025 banning children under 16 from having social media accounts, requiring platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube to block underage users or face large fines. The law, part of the Online Safety Amendment Act 2024, aims to protect young people from online harms and pressures."

We should follow their lead on guns as well.

[Skittles]

2. corporate profits trump parental decisions

where are the WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN! folk now

[Jack Valentino]

9. Busy standing guard over school bathrooms....

[Skittles]

10. you got it

that's some fucked up shyte right there

[Jack Valentino]

12. but on the bright side, the same sort of people have been getting voted off of school boards!

[Skittles]

13. I think people have had it with these judgmental fuckwads

seriously, who the FUCK are they to judge

[Jack Valentino]

16. And, a story I just recently read about a very recent poll showed that a majority of voters

think the GQP is "too obsessed with trans people" or something to that effect....

[Skittles]

19. that's a good example

it's a red meat issue created by the GOP but as usual they overreached so badly even repukes I know admitted transgender folk have no real impact on their lives whereas shit like, say, INFLATION.....does

[Tasmanian Devil]

3. Sadly not fake

More info .. https://cybernews.com/tech/google-parental-controls-email/

[Celerity]

6. Google just reversed its policy:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220936706#post5

[Maru Kitteh]

23. because they were caught

As it is always.

[TheProle]

4. It's COPPA compliant

https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/rules/childrens-online-privacy-protection-rule-coppa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Online_Privacy_Protection_Act

[Celerity]

5. Google reverses key parental control policy. Teens will now need to get explicit permission to remove a parental

supervision setting.

https://mashable.com/article/google-family-link-parental-controls-turn-off-at-13

Google announced Monday that the company is reversing its longstanding practice of allowing minors supervised by their parents via Family Link to unilaterally opt-out of those settings upon turning 13. Soon, if a teen wants to manage their own account, it require parental approval. A spokesperson for Google told Mashable that the policy goes into effect globally this week.

"These changes better ensure protections stay in place until both the parent and teen feel ready for the next step," Kate Charlet, Google's head of global privacy, safety, and security, wrote in a LinkedIn post about the change.

The Google spokesperson said the new policy had been planned for some time. Still, it was announced soon after an online child safety advocate drew viral attention to the company's previous policy in a viral Linkedin post. As of this story's publication, the post had elicited more than 600 comments and received 375,000 impressions.

Melissa McKay, president of the advocacy organization Digital Childhood Institute, wrote the post after receiving an email notification that her 12-year-old son would soon be able to adjust the parental controls she'd set for him through Google's Family Link product. Mashable reviewed the email, which McKay described as short and vague.

snip

[orleans]

11. so they avoided a class action lawsuit -- except for the kids who already followed their directions and turned off

the parent controls.

[Jack Valentino]

17. Translation: "we got scared by the backlash"!

[canetoad]

7. Hey Google

Don't be evil.

[Jack Valentino]

14. Hey, they just want to make money!---

1 Timothy 6:10: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows".


Always loved your username---
I once had a cane toad as a pet, "Scrumpy"
who also became a candidate for President on an old angelfire website...

(wish I still had the files for that, I saved them somewhere upon a
ahem, small "floppy disk"! LOL)

[vanlassie]

18. They could have been well loved and still very very rich, but, at least they got rid of the motto

…

[Faux pas]

8. DISGUSTIPATING

[USS_Dauntless]

15. How many Google execs are in those Epstein files?

Taking all bets!

[Montauk6]

20. Groomgle anyone?

[Crowman2009]

21. Add another company to the boycott list! BTW, anyone know of any gmail alternatives?

Seriously!

[Xipe Totec]

22. Soupy Sales' 'Green Pieces of Paper' Scandal

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/greenmail/

In January 1965 on his morning children's show, the performer Soupy Sales suggested to his young viewers that they find the wallets of their sleeping fathers and take out "some of those funny green pieces of paper with all those nice pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Alexander Hamilton, and send them along to your old pal, Soupy, care of WNEW, New York."

"Hey kids, last night was New Year's Eve, and your mother and dad were out having a great time. They are probably still sleeping and what I want you to do is tiptoe in their bedroom and go in your mom's pocketbook and your dad's pants, which are probably on the floor. You'll see a lot of green pieces of paper with pictures of guys in beards. Put them in an envelope and send them to me at Soupy Sales, Channel 5, New York, New York. And you know what I'm going to send you? A post card from Puerto Rico!"