Google is making this change as part of their ongoing efforts to align with global child safety regulations and privacy policies, particularly laws like the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the EU’s GDPR-K (General Data Protection Regulation for Kids).
What’s Changing?
Starting March 2025, Google will require explicit parental consent for users under 18 to access additional Google services (like YouTube, Google Maps, and others beyond core Google Workspace for Education tools like Google Docs and Slides). If parental consent is not confirmed, these services will be blocked for students.
Why This Matters for Schools
Many of these services are used for educational purposes (e.g., YouTube for lessons, Google Maps for geography projects).
If consent isn’t given, students will lose access, which could disrupt learning.
Schools may need to create separate user groups to manage students with and without consent.
What does this look like for Heathfield Community College?
If consent is not given, students will lose access to these Google services:
- Google Earth/Maps (Geography Tool)
- Chrome Canvas/Chrome Cursive (Googles handwriting programs)
- Minecraft Education Edition (Used in clubs and sometimes in lessons)
- CoSpaces (A Coding App)
- YouTube (Often used by teachers in presentations)
- Google Arts & Culture (features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives – used in Politics and Drama)
- Google Books (allows the searching of the full text of a book – used in History & EPQ)
- Google Notebook LM (is a personalized AI collaborator that helps you to interact with your source content – used in Social Sciences)
- Google Photos (used in Photography & Media)