Naven
Answers
Is Google Chat safe for kids?
Google Chat is a workplace and school messaging tool, and on a school-managed Google account it is usually as safe as the school's settings make it: administrators decide whether students can message people outside the school. On a personal Google account a child under 13 can only use it through Family Link, and Google Chat does not screen messages before they are delivered.
Most children meet Google Chat through a school Google Workspace for Education account. In that setting the school's administrator controls a great deal: whether Chat is switched on at all, whether students can chat with people outside the school's domain, whether chat history is kept, and whether spaces can be created. A student on a well-configured school account can usually only message classmates and teachers, and the school can see chat history if it keeps it.
On a personal Google account, the rules are Google's. A child under 13 in the United States can only have a Google Account through Family Link, which lets a parent manage apps and screen time. Whether Chat is available on a supervised account depends on the device and the parent's settings.
What Google Chat does not do. Messages are encrypted in transit and at rest on Google's servers but are not end-to-end encrypted by default; Workspace customers on some paid plans can add client-side encryption. There is no screening of ordinary messages between people before they are delivered: Google Chat relies on blocking, reporting, and the school's own rules. Anybody who has your child's Google address can start a conversation with them unless an administrator has limited it.
Why families look elsewhere. A school account belongs to the school, and it often stops working at graduation or when a child changes schools. Children also tend to use the school account for things the school never intended, which leaves the school responsible for conversations it did not set out to host.
Naven is one alternative a family can control itself: it works in the same browser on a school Chromebook, it needs an email address rather than a phone number, a parent or guardian agrees for anybody under 18 and gets their own controls, and every message is screened against published rules before it is sent. For school work itself, the school's own tools remain the right place.