What are the age requirements for Google Apps for Ed

[edutech4schools]

All of my primary schools have been using GAPPS for many years but it's only been used by the staff for Email, Calendar, Sites and Drive. One of the primary schools has ask if we can get the pupils set up with Drive only, so they will not need the email or G+ etc.

 

I have looked around for any age restrictions, and all I seem to find is that the free Google apps has an age restriction of 13 but this is not the case with Google Apps for Ed in the UK, which does not appear to have that limit. The problem is this info is only on others websites and blogs. I have not been able to find anything directly explaining things from Google.

 

Also in one forum they mentioned that the terms of service of the free apps service stated an age of 13 but that has been removed in the educational version of the ToS.

 

Anyone else found this info out?

Does the fact they do not have any age info listed in the ToS mean it's OK?

[JSchlackman]

The age limit of 13 comes from a U.S. law (COPPA) that prevents providers from collecting any data from children under 13 without parental permission. Since it is usually difficult to verify parental permission with any amount of certainly, U.S. based websites typically ban under-13s regardless of location.

 

You, of course, do not have that problem. Simply get parental permission. When you sign up to Google Apps you contract to do this on Google's behalf so that they can legally store any data you supply to them as part of the pupils' user accounts. You don't need to send the permission slips to Google in any way, simply retain them for the school's records and you are covered.

[machin05]

Google made a recent announcement that they won't be collecting data from Apps for Education users, so this probably negates the need for an age restriction.

[machin05]

Official Google Enterprise Blog

 

We’ve permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Apps for Education, which means Google cannot collect or use student data in Apps for Education services for advertising purposes.

[machin05]

More deets here:

 

Google for Education

[JSchlackman]

That announcement, while very welcome, does not negate the need for the age restriction. The restriction was never about datamining, it is about collecting any personal information about users under 13 at all.

[edutech4schools]

Thanks for the info. Will let the school know we can move forward.