Control access to Google services by age

This feature is only available to Google Workspace for Education editions.

To make it easier to tailor experiences for your users, you can set access to some Google services based on age. The default age-based access setting depends on your institution type:

Primary and secondary education institutions—All users not designated as 18 and over get an age-restricted experience for some Google services.
Higher education institutions—Users not designated as under the age of 18 have no additional restrictions for Google services. However, administrators in those organizations are required to identify any users under the age of 18.

Understand the default settings

As an administrator, you should identify users in your organization who are 18 years of age and older. If you don't:

All users in primary and secondary institutions who are not designated as over 18 default to under 18 and get a restricted experience in some Google services.
Users under the age of 18 lose access to certain services and features. Data created by these users in Additional Services or features that they no longer have access to might be deleted. Before the data is deleted, you can let users export their data with Google Takeout. Learn how to allow or block Google Takeout.
Services without an on or off control are set to Restricted for users who aren't designated as over 18. You can't change this setting for those users. For details, go to Manage access to services that aren't controlled individually.

The age-based access setting applies to the top-level organization. However, you can identify users, such as teachers and staff, as over or under the age of 18 by putting them in an organizational unit or access group and setting the correct age level. For details, go to Customize the setting for your organization (below).

App restrictions for users under 18

Users designated as under the age of 18 have restrictions in some Google services when they're signed in to their Google Workspace for Education account. Also, some services aren't available to users under the age of 18.

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YouTube

If you turn on YouTube, you can restrict which YouTube videos are viewable by signed-in users in your organization and on your network using YouTube’s Restricted Mode settings. For details, go to Manage your organization’s YouTube settings.

Also, here are some features that are unavailable to users in primary and secondary institutions who are designated as under the age of 18:

Create channels, public playlists, stories, shorts, live streams, or upload videos
Watch live stream videos (only turned off for Moderate or Strict Restricted Mode)
See or post comments
Participate in live chat
Buy channel memberships, creator merchandise, movies and TV shows, Super Chat and Super Stickers, or participate in YouTube Giving fundraisers
Use apps, including YouTube Go, YouTube Mobile Web, YouTube Music, YouTube Studio, YouTube TV, and YouTube VR
Access other features, including:
- Receive most notifications
- Cast on TV
- Connect game accounts
- Use Incognito mode
- Get personalized ads
- Turn Restricted Mode on or off
Filter video results (by upload date, for example)

Google Search

SafeSearch is a user policy that helps filter most explicit content from Google Search results. Users designated as under the age of 18 who are signed into Google Search with their Google Workspace for Education accounts have SafeSearch turned on by default across all browsers.

Note: SafeSearch is also a Chrome policy that you can apply to signed-out users on Chrome browser.

Search Generative Experience and Search Labs

Google Workspace for Education users designated as under the age of 18 cannot access Search Generative Experience (SGE), Search Labs, or any generative AI tools while they are signed in with their account.

SGE and Search Labs are only available for use with a personal Google Account.

Services with On or Off controls

Even though these apps have On or Off controls in the Google Admin console, Google Workspace for Education users designated as under the age of 18 will be restricted from using these services with their Google Workspace for Education accounts, regardless of the setting:

AppSheet
Blogger
Campaign Manager
Early Access Apps
Google Ad Manager
Google Ads
Google AdSense
Google Analytics
Google Cloud Platform
Google Developer Platform, including Developer Profiles
Google Pay
Google Play Console
Google Public Data Explorer
Location History
Merchant Center
Partner Dash
Play Books Partner Center
Question Hub
Search Ads 360
Studio
Tables

Services without On or Off controls

For all Google Workspace for Education users whom administrators designated as under 18 can’t access Google services that don’t have an individual On or Off control using their Google Workspace for Education account. Administrators can only turn on services that have a specific On or Off control for those users.

Customize the setting for your organization

You can move users to an organizational unit or access group and apply age-based settings. For more details, go to Configuration groups for use by admins.

If you use organizational units or access groups:

Change the setting of any staff (including an administrator), teacher, and faculty organizational unit or configuration group to be 18 or older. Be sure that all users in the organizational unit or group are 18 years of age or older.
Move any users under the age of 18 in your staff, teacher, or faculty organizational units or access groups to another organizational unit or group and apply the appropriate age-level setting.
For higher education institutions, if you have users under the age of 18, you must add them to an organizational unit or group and apply the appropriate age-level setting.

Note: If you delete a user, you also delete the information regarding the age-based access setting for their account.

Set age-based access to Google services

You can designate your users’ age level in the Admin console. If you don’t, all users without an age designation get the default experience for your institution type. You can change the designation to reflect the accurate age of the user, if the default does not match.

Note that when you change a user’s age designation from over 18 to under 18, they lose access to certain services and features. Starting 30 days after the age designation change, data they created in Additional Services or features that they no longer have access to will begin to be deleted. If you mistakenly change a user’s age designation from over 18 to under 18, you can revert the change within 30 days and their data will not be deleted.

Users can export their data before it is deleted by using Google Takeout for services you allow Google Takeout for. Learn more about turning on Google Takeout.

Before you begin: To be sure that your institution gets the correct default age designation, check that you set the correct organization type in your Google Admin console. For details, go to Select your organization type for Google Workspace for Education.

Managing age-based access settings in Google Admin Console

To set age-based access:

Before you begin: If needed, learn how to apply the setting to a department or group.

Sign in to your Google Admin console.
Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).
From the Admin console Home page, click Account settingsAge-based access settings.
(Optional) To apply the setting only to some users, at the side, select an organizational unit (often used for departments) or configuration group (advanced). Show me how
Group settings override organizational units. Learn more
For Choose an appropriate age label, choose an option:
- Some or all users are under 18 years of age
- All users are 18 or older
Click Save. Or, you might click Override for an organizational unit.
To later restore the inherited value, click Inherit (or Unset for a group).

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