Google launches Family Safety Centre for Australia

When I was younger, my parents taught me to cross the road safely. I learned to look both ways and to be aware of what was going on around me, and soon I was able to navigate my way first around the local area, and then further afield, on my own.

In many ways, using the Internet is similar to finding your way around the real world. Everyone needs the skills to navigate the online world safely and responsibly. To help people do just that, and to mark the end of National Child Protection Week, today we are launching a new Family Safety Centre for Australia —a one stop shop for families and communities to learn about our safety tools, controls, and best practices online.

The new Safety Centre provides guidelines on how families can help control the things their children see via tools like the SafeSearch lock or YouTube Safety Mode, and protect their privacy by limiting who can see the videos, pictures and blogs meant to be shared with family members only. We’ve also added a section on mobile and how to manage geo-location features in apps like Search and Latitude and on Android devices as a whole.

But it’s not just about Google’s products and features. For other day-to-day practical tips about online safety we asked some of our Google parents to share their own ideas.







In order to include answers in the Safety Centre to specific questions on topics like how to deal with inappropriate content online and cyberbullying, we worked with a number of wonderful organisations that share our commitment to online safety. Thank you to the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Bravehearts, Bullying No Way, Kids Helpline, and ThinkUKnow, for their enormous help and support in putting together this Safety Centre. Together, we want to help everyone be smart, safe and responsible online.

With kids growing up in an age where digital know-how is essential, it’s increasingly important to ensure that they’re developing healthy, safe, and responsible online habits. And at Google, we’re thinking every day about how we can help people to do just that.

Posted by Ishtar Vij, public policy team, Google Australia and New Zealand