Google has issued a new policy to help underage users, and their parents remove images from Google Search.
In a new blog post, Google announced it is making it easier for kids, teens, and their caretakers to remove images of themselves from Google Search results – if they become unexpectedly available on the internet.
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Google already provides a range of options for people to take control over their content in Search but is now implementing a new policy that will allow anyone to request the removal of their images from Search results in just a few steps. This way, images will not appear in the Images tab or as thumbnails in any other Google Search feature.
To request that an image be removed, users can visit the new policy’s help page, where Google lists the information it will need on the removal request form.
To start the process, users can fill out the removal request form to report the imagery that is appearing in the results. The form will ask for information like the image’s URLs, any search results pages containing the images, and the search query terms that surface the images.
After the request is submitted, Google will review it to verify it meets the requirements for the removal and notify the user once the images have been taken down.
Google points out that removing images from Google Search does not remove them from the internet. To have an image entirely removed from the web, users should contact the site where they have been published initially and ask that they remove the content, too.
“We believe this change will help give young people more control over their digital footprint and where their images can be found on Search,” Google says.
Photo by Jessica Rockowitz on Unsplash