As you may have read in Google for Education’s latest blog about their commitment to safer digital learning environments, they are deploying new policies to help you keep your users even safer. They are launching a new age-based access setting, to provide admins with more tools to tailor experiences for users based on their age. All K-12 Workspace for Education customers need to indicate which users in their institution are 18 years of age or older via the age-based access setting in the Admin Console prior to September 1, 2021 to prevent users, such as teachers or staff, from losing access to services. 

[Action required] Set Up Your “Age-based Access Setting” by Sept 1

After Sept 1, 2021, any users in your K-12 domain that have not been indicated as 18 and older will default to the under 18 account setting. All users under 18 will have a more restricted experience with their Workspace accounts when using Additional Google services. 

• Teachers & Staff: it is especially important that this setting is configured for Teachers & Staff who are 18 and older to prevent these users from losing access to aspects of Additional Google services (e.g. teaching content created on YouTube) or losing access to some services entirely. 
• Users under 18: users designated as under 18 will lose access to some Additional Google Services including, but not limited to: 

1. Blogger
2. Google Cloud Platform
3. Location History
4. Play Books Partner Center
5. Here is the full list of restrictions & services that will no longer be available for users under 18. 

• Google Services without an on/off switch: Starting September 1, 2021, Google services without a specific on/off control will be unavailable for under 18 users. Administrators will only be able to enable services that are identified by a specific on/off control for users under 18. 
• Help your <18 users download their data: Your administrator can turn Google Takeout on or off for users and encourage your users to download their data using Google Takeout prior to September 1, 2021. After September 1, 2021 data that your users have lost access to may be deleted. Learn more about all the restrictions & services that will no longer be available for users under 18. Services may also contact end users directly regarding changes in their access to the service.

What do I need to do?

Please update the age-based access settings in your Admin console to indicate all users above the age of 18 (i.e. teachers, staff) before September 1, 2021. 

How to set age-based access settings for users: 

1. Go to the Admin Console.

2. Under “Accounts”> “Account Settings”, go to “Age-based access” setting 

3. For each organizational unit or group on the left-hand side, indicate whether the organizational unit or group contains users above the age of 18.*

When setting the age-based access setting, please note:

• *Do not select “All users are 18 or older” for organizational units that contain any users under the age of 18. Learn more about how to set age-based access to Additional Google services.
• If no action is taken by September 1, 2021, all users (including teachers, staff) in K-12 domains will default to the under 18 experience, meaning they will have restricted access to additional Google services and will no longer be able to access services without on/off controls. 
• Once completing the steps above, we’d also recommend that you verify your school type designation in Admin Console to ensure that it is correct.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thanks,