Google has introduced a new option to let anyone under the age of 18, their parents, or guardians request to remove their images from search results. If approved, the images in question will not appear in Google Search’s Images tab or as thumbnails in any Google Search feature.
Request to Remove Images of Minors from Google Search Results
To submit a request, you should visit this support page and fill in the relevant details. The details required include image URLs, personal information of the minor such as name, age, country of residence, and contact email address. If you are submitting the request on behalf of someone else, you will have to specify your relationship to that person.
After submission, Google may reach out for additional information if needed. Furthermore, the company will notify you once it takes down the image. If the request doesn’t meet the company’s requirements for removal, you’ll get a brief explanation in the email. If you think that the decision was a mistake, you can choose to re-submit the request later. You could consider adding more relevant materials to support your case while resubmitting the request.
“We know that kids and teens have to navigate some unique challenges online, especially when a picture of them is unexpectedly available on the internet…We believe this change will help give young people more control over their digital footprint and where their images can be found on Search,” wrote Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search.
Google further highlights that removing an image from search results won’t remove it from the internet. If you want to request to remove an image from a website, you will have to contact the site’s webmaster instead. Google has a dedicated support page here if you are curious to know how you can contact a site’s webmaster.
