Google's Doodle Debacle and What It Means to Your Kids

By Lynette T. Owens

Earlier this week, Google was exposed for an issue with their 4^th annual “Doodle 4 Google” contest.  The contest is designed to encourage creativity among students in grades K-12 in the U.S…  It asks them to create a drawing using the Google logo.  The winning entry is then displayed on the Google home page and the winner receives a college scholarship and a technology fund for their school.  It’s commendable to engage and reward students in this way and it’s a fantastic way to build goodwill around a brand (not many brands valued so highly will allow people to mess with their logo).    But the misstep Google made in this 4th year is stunning, especially for a company that is closely scrutinized and many times criticized for its privacy practices.  I took particular interest in this story and contest because we are also currently running a contest aimed at youth and schools.   According to Google’s contest site, they made one change in this 4^th year which seems to have contributed to their mistake.   In the past, they only allowed kids to participate through their schools.  But many parents had apparently expressed interest for their kids to participate despite the fact that their schools were not registered to do so.  So they opened the gates to parent-sponsored entries as well as school-sponsored entries.   Continue reading Google's Doodle Debacle and What It Means to Your Kids.....

 

 

About Trend Micro
To support our vision of making the world safe for exchanging digital information, Trend Micro aspires to make a difference by using our 20+ years of expertise in developing world-class security software for homes and businesses  to make the world at large a better place. One of the ways we do this is through a commitment to make the Internet a safer place for young people around the world.

 

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