How Google Keeps You Safe: Online Safety Rules, Reporting, and Your Rights
Google is committed to providing a safe experience across our platforms. To do this, we follow safety laws from around the world and enforce strict rules about what is allowed on our services. We take this responsibility seriously.
On this page:
How to report content on Google
The review process: What happens after you report?
Misusing our reporting and appeals systems
How we use proactive technology to protect you
Support and resources for mental health
1. The online safety rules we follow
- We follow online safety laws from around the world, which typically impose duties relating to illegal content and content harmful to children:
- Illegal content is content that violates applicable laws, including child sexual exploitation and abuse content, terrorist content, intimate image abuse, content depicting extreme violence, and other types of illegal content under national or local laws.
- Content harmful to children is content that may legally be accessed by adults in some countries, but is nonetheless harmful to children or minors, including content that promotes suicide, self harm and eating disorders, bullying, abuse and hate content, and content promoting violence, dangerous stunts, or harmful substances.
- Our product policies set out more detailed rules on illegal content, content harmful to children, or any other types of content that are prohibited on each of our products (like YouTube or Search). You can find these policies in our Terms of Service and the Google Transparency Center.
Our Google Safety Center, together with our Google Transparency Center and Google Help Center, further outline our global approach to protecting you from illegal and harmful content.
You can learn more specifically about our approach to fighting child sexual abuse online across Google on our Protecting Children page.
You can find YouTube’s policies and enforcement approach for child safety and violent extremism here and in the YouTube Help Center.
2. How to report content on Google
We use numerous tools and processes to prevent, detect, and respond to illegal content, content harmful to children, and other harmful or policy-violating content.
We may detect potentially prohibited content through a combination of human review and automated processes. More information on our use of proactive technology to detect potentially prohibited content is set out below.
We also rely on the Google community and the public to help us identify harmful content by reporting it directly to us. If you see content on Google that you believe is illegal, harmful to children, or breaks our rules for any other reason, please let us know. Here’s how:
- Report a Policy Violation (including content harmful to children): You can usually report content that violates a product’s rules, including content harmful to children, by locating the "Report", "Flag", or similar button within that product (for example, the "Report" button on a YouTube video). You can find instructions for specific products in this Google Help Center.
- Legal Removal Request: To ask us to remove content that you believe is illegal (such as copyright infringement, defamation, or content violating other local laws), use our Legal Removal Request Tool.
Sometimes there can be overlap between what violates our policies and what is against the law. If so, you don’t have to choose—you can report the content to us using both paths.
In addition, some countries provide specific legal protections and reporting rights. Please see more under ‘Additional country-specific legal rights’ below.
Non-Google Services: If you find harmful content on a service that we don’t own—for example, a website you found in Search results—we suggest that you first contact that service provider directly, since removing that content from Google would not remove it from the internet entirely. To report content on an App downloaded from Google Play, we suggest that you first contact the app provider before reporting it to Google.
3. The review process: What happens after you report?
When you submit a report using one of our webforms, it is sent to the team best positioned to help.
- Review: Our automated systems or human moderators look at the content to see if it violates our policies or the law, depending on which reporting path you choose and the type of content you are reporting. We aim to review all reports promptly and typically make a decision within ten business days, though complex cases may take longer and some laws may require a faster review. Occasionally we might ask you for some more details before we can make a decision.
- Potential Actions: Depending on the content or its location, we may remove the content entirely, age-restrict it, make it harder to find, add a warning label, or take some other action that we believe is necessary and appropriate (such as suspending the relevant user account). If the content doesn't break our rules or the law, we may take no action.
- Staying Informed: Unless noted otherwise, we will send you an email or notification about our decision on a legal removal request. We may also notify you when we make a decision about content you report through our product policy reporting tools. In some cases, we may notify the person who posted the content that a complaint was made, typically if that report results in the content being removed or restricted in some way. If a government or court asked for the removal, we may tell the user who uploaded the content which entity made that request.
- Automated Decision-making: We ensure that decisions are checked by human moderators where we are required to do so by law. If we use an automated system to make our decision without human review, we will let you know in the notification you receive, where we are required to do so by law.
4. Looking to appeal?
If you have filed a request to remove allegedly illegal or policy-violating content and we decided not to take action, or if you are a content owner whose content has been removed or restricted, you may have the right to file an appeal. If you are eligible to appeal, you will receive information necessary to do so either in the notice informing the outcome of your original request or, if you are a content owner, in the statement of reasons explaining our reason for removal. Instructions are also set out in the relevant product’s appeal policy.
You can generally make an appeal for six months from the date of our decision, unless noted otherwise, or unless otherwise required by applicable law (for example if you are reporting certain illegal content in Australia, appeals must generally be filed within one month of our decision).
We aim to resolve all appeals promptly. Typically, we do so within ten business days, though some more complex cases may take longer. When the appeal is decided we will inform you of our decision, which may include taking the action requested in your appeal, denying your appeal, or taking some other action that we deem appropriate. We ensure that appeal decisions are taken or checked by human moderators where we are required to do so by law.
Visit the Google Transparency Center and the Google Legal Help Center, including our Guide to Appeals, to learn more about Google policies and how to appeal a decision.
If your account has been incorrectly age restricted, you may be able to demonstrate that you meet Google’s minimum age requirements by using a government ID or credit card to verify your age. Visit the Google Account Help Center to learn more about that process.
5. Misusing our reporting and appeals systems
Do not abuse our legal reporting webforms. Those who submit clearly baseless, fraudulent, or bad faith reports or appeals will be flagged and may be suspended from reporting content in the future. Users will typically receive a warning before a suspension; however, we reserve the right to suspend users indefinitely and without warning in cases of severe or deliberate abuse. See our Misuse Policy to learn more.
6. How we use proactive technology to protect you
The Google Safety Center explains our overarching approach to using proactive technology to prevent, detect, and respond to content that violates our rules.
We use proactive technology to block or restrict harmful content before it reaches you. This technology is applied both at the time users upload content and on an ongoing basis. Depending on the product, this may include:
- Smart AI (Classifiers): We use artificial intelligence which we have trained to identify patterns of abuse, such as hate speech or violence. If our AI flags potentially prohibited content, it can be removed automatically or sent for review by a human moderator.
- CSAM Hashing: Google is committed to fighting online child sexual abuse and exploitation. When we find child sexual abuse material, we give it a unique digital "fingerprint”. We use these fingerprints to help recognize future attempts to upload or share the same CSAM content.
- Search Guardrails: On Google Search, our systems are designed to prioritise what appears to be the most useful and helpful content on a given topic, and not to surface content that violates our rules. We have systems to prevent potentially unhelpful and rule-violating auto-complete predictions from appearing. If someone searches for terms related to topics such as suicide, self-harm, domestic violence, or sexual assault, they’ll see prominent links to crisis hotline providers.
Visit the Google Transparency Center or the Google Help Center to learn more about how we use proactive technology on our products. You can learn about the proactive technologies we use to fight child sexual abuse online on our Protecting Children page. Our Help Center also includes information on YouTube’s approach to age-restricted content.
7. Tools for your safety toolbox
You can also customize your own safety settings in certain products, including by using:
- SafeSearch: this allows you to filter out explicit results in Google Search.
- Google Families: this outlines the tools available to help you protect your family online. Among other things, parents can use Family Link to help manage screen time and app permissions.
For information on YouTube safety tools, visit the YouTube Privacy and Safety Center.
For all other product-specific information on safety tools or settings, please visit the Google Safety Center.
8. Support and resources for mental health
Please also remember that if something you’ve seen online is weighing on you, you don’t have to handle it by yourself. You can find a list of independent organizations that provide free and confidential help in this Help Center article, which includes country-specific resources.
9. Additional country-specific legal rights
Some countries provide specific legal protections against illegal content and certain types of content harmful to children, including reporting or appeal rights. Select your country below to learn more about the laws applicable to you.
Australia
If you are located in Australia, you may have legal rights under the Australia Online Safety Act (Australia OSA) is designed to keep Australians safe from online harm. You can learn more about the Australia OSA, including the Online Safety Codes and Standards.
Report a concern about Google’s compliance with the Australia OSA or Online Safety Codes and Standards: Google takes its obligations to comply with the Australia OSA seriously. If you are an Australian user and believe Google does not comply with the Australia OSA (or in respect of Google Cloud Platform and Kaggle, its customers), you can submit a complaint via this Australia Online Safety Act Complaints Form.
Report a concern to eSafety: The eSafety Commissioner is Australia’s independent regulator for online safety and can investigate and help you deal with online abuse and illegal or restricted online content. You can report cyberbullying, adult cyber abuse, image-based abuse (sharing, or threatening to share, intimate images without consent), and illegal or restricted content, directly on the eSafety reporting page. eSafety also provides helpful resources for parents, carers and young people on what to do and how to get support if you see distressing content online.
Brazil
If you are located in Brazil, you may have legal rights under the Brazil Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente Digital (Digital ECA) and the Marco Civil da Internet. You can learn more by visiting the Digital ECA information page and the Marco Civil da Internet legislation.
If you or someone you know is a victim of digital violence against women, you may also contact the Call Center for Women (Central de Atendimento à Mulher) at Dial 180 (Ligue 180).
European Union
If you are located in the EU, you may have legal rights under the EU Digital Services Act (DSA). Learn more about the EU Digital Services Act (DSA).
For example, if you reside in the EU and you filed a request to remove allegedly illegal or policy-violating content from an online platform and we decided not to take action, or if you are an EU content owner whose content has been removed or restricted from an online platform, You can learn more about out-of-court dispute settlement options in the EU.
Singapore
If you are located in Singapore, you may have statutory rights to seek recourse under the Online Safety (Relief and Accountability) Act 2025 (OSRAA) for certain harmful content. You can learn more about OSRAA and your options for relief here.
If you wish to file an Online Harm Notice for Google Maps Reviews, please click here to access our secure webform.
We understand that reporting harmful content can be stressful. To make this process as safe and straightforward as possible when using our webforms, please keep the following in mind:
- Indicate OSRAA: When filing an online harm notice, please select “Singapore” as the country of residence and indicate your request to be made under “OSRAA” by checking the box below the URLs.
- Protecting your identity: If a form asks for a "legal name," you do not have to share your real name if you prefer not to. It is perfectly fine to identify the victim using other options, such as a pseudonym, a platform username, or a channel handle.
- Your contact information: You are welcome to provide more than one email address to ensure you receive our updates safely.
- Reporting for someone else: If you are stepping in to help someone else and filling out the form on their behalf, you can fill in the "Legal Relationship" field if you are a parent or guardian for a person under 18, an appointed deputy or donee, or an authorised representative.
- Describing what happened: When the form asks how the content violates the law, simply share the facts about what happened and describe the harmful content. You do not need to worry about stating a legal opinion or using legal terms.
United Kingdom
If you are located in the United Kingdom, you may have legal rights under the UK Online Safety Act (UK OSA). You can learn more about the UK OSA.
Report a concern about Google's compliance with the UK OSA: Google takes its obligations to comply with the UK OSA seriously. If you are a UK user and believe Google does not comply with the UK OSA, including if you believe Google has used proactive technology other than in accordance with our Terms of Service, you can submit a complaint through our online form.