Google Assistant just got more kid-friendly and a little safer, too
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Google is his . updating Assistant platform to be more kid-friendly with a range of new parental controls, voices and more.
Before that, the Google Assistant never really had parental controls, but as the company claims in the announcement (opens in new tab), children often interact with shared devices, so it seemed necessary to give parents the necessary tools to control them.
Parental Control Assistant allows users to control what type of content, features, and devices children can access at home. For content, you can limit yourself to a handful of approved services like YouTube Kids or YouTube Music. Parents can also restrict access to news and podcasts. Certain features such as calling can be disabled and answers given can be age-appropriate. There’s even a new Downtime tool coming to set a schedule for when kids can use Google Assistant.
Other New Features
The age-appropriate answers come with the introduction of Kids Dictionary, which allows the Assistant to provide “simplified… answers” to children. According to the announcement, the feature works by allowing the Assistant to recognize that a child is speaking and “understand” that a question is being asked. Google gives the example of a child asking what a telescope is and the child gets a basic definition of a Nest Hub screen.
To use Kids Dictionary, you must first add your child’s voice to a supporting device. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the Google Assistant help page (opens in new tab).
The latest addition is the arrival of four new kid-friendly voices (opens in new tab). Google states that these voices are designed with input from children and parents to reflect different accents. They also speak in a slower and more expressive style compared to the standard monotone voice (opens in new tab) for adults.
Everything in the update will be available to all US users in the coming weeks. It is unknown at this time if there are any plans for a global launch. Google states that the parental controls are making their way to the Assistant, Home and Family Link apps on both Android and iOS. Presumably, Kids Dictionary and the Four Voices will also go to those apps, but the announcement doesn’t say for sure.
We reached out to Google for more clarification and asked how parents can switch voices to a more kid-friendly voice. This story will be updated if we hear anything.
Better protection
The Google Assistant update is part of a prolonged effort (opens in new tab) by the tech giant to empower parents to better protect their families. In fact, the The aforementioned Family Link recently got a major makeover which has changed its user interface and added a new location tracking feature. In addition, Google TV has got new parent-controlled watchlists to make it easier to check the content.
But let’s say that’s not enough and you want more protective equipment for your family or suggest some. We recommend to check out Ditching’s Best Identity Theft Protection List for Families. These security packages provide tools such as a password manager, anti-malware protection, and VPNs.