Earlier this week, news came out that Google is looking at catering to a whole new market – kids under thirteen years old.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is working on a new system that would let parents set up accounts for kids, and control how they use services and what info is collected about them.

The Journal’s source said it’s Google’s response to people who are already trying to sign their kids up for the company’s products. Apparently they want to make sure it’s handled right and lawfully.

The Information, which first reported on Google’s plans, says Google will offer a dashboard for parents to oversee kids’ activities. This would be in addition to a kid-friendly version of YouTube.

As it stands right now, you’re really running a risk with any YouTube content not from an official channel. You never know when that Yo Gabba Gabba video is going to be a profanity-laced parody or if that funny animal video is a little more adult-oriented than you expected.

Google goes to great lengths to censor adult content from image searches, even with SafeSearch set to its most open option, but sometimes things slip through the cracks.

It will be very interesting to see how Google is able to handle actual kids versions of products. If it messes up, it’s going to generate a great deal of controversy, not that Google is any stranger to that.

Image via Google