Google Bard now with safety guardrails for teens

Google has opened access to Bard to teenagers with guardrails in place – it’s available starting this week in “most countries around the world”, but for those who “meet the minimum age requirement to manage their own Google account” and have set English as their primary language.

In an ad blog postGoogle says Bard has been “trained” to recognize areas “inappropriate for young users and has put in place safety features and guardrails to prevent dangerous content, such as illegal or restricted substances.” of age, do not appear in his responses to adolescents” (via 9to5Google).

“We also recognize that many people, including adolescents, are not always aware of hallucinations in LLMs (LLM stands for Large Language Models). So the first time a teen asks a factual question, we will automatically run our double-check answers feature, which helps assess whether there is content on the web to support Bard’s answer. Soon, this feature will run automatically when a new Bard user asks their first factual question. And for teens, we will actively recommend using double-checking to help them develop their information skills and critical thinking,” the post read. Google explains that before launching Bard to young people, advice from experts in child safety and development was used to help them. shaping content policies and an experience that prioritizes safety: “And organizations like the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) have advised us on how to keep the needs of teens and families in mind.”

“FOSI research found that most teens and parents expect GenAI skills to be an important part of their future,” says Stephen Balkam, founder and CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. “Google’s thoughtful approach to expanding access to Bard to teens is an important benefit. an important step in providing adolescents with the opportunity to explore this technology with appropriate safeguards in place.”