Can You Turn Off Google AI Overviews for Your Child? What Works in 2026

No. Google's own help page says AI Overviews are a core Search feature and "cannot be turned off," and we found no Family Link or school admin setting that removes AI Overviews or AI Mode from a child's account. What you can do is narrower: switch a search to Google's Web filter, use a search engine that has an AI-off option, block Google Search entirely, and teach your child to check the AI answer before trusting it.

That last part matters most, because your child will meet these answers at school, at friends' houses and on library computers, where your settings don't reach.

Facts checked October 15, 2026; Google's help pages rechecked October 20, 2026. This guide is based on Google's help centers, Common Sense Media's published assessment and news reporting linked below. KidsAiTools did not run its own tests on children's accounts, and the scripts are KidsAiTools examples.

The short answer by account type

Sources for the table: Google's AI Overviews help page, Family Link's Search controls, Google's SafeSearch help, Google Workspace admin help on users under 18, Family Link's Gemini page and Common Sense Media's assessment.

Two Google features are involved. AI Overviews appear automatically at the top of some results. AI Mode is a chatbot-style search your child enters by tapping "AI Mode," or going to google.com/ai. On phones, tapping "Show more" under an AI Overview opens an "Ask anything" bar that continues the search in AI Mode (Google's AI Mode help, AI Overviews help).

What Common Sense Media found

Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Institute gave Google Search's AI Overview and AI Mode its lowest rating, "Unacceptable Risk" (assessment, updated July 14, 2026). Testers ran more than 2,600 interactions between May 19 and July 1, 2026, using Family Link test accounts for an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old, with SafeSearch on. They reported no meaningful difference between the two ages.

Findings parents are likely to care about:

• Homework: AI Mode produced complete answers to all 180 assignments the testers submitted.
• Consistency: the same history question got materially different AI Overview answers 43% of the time (Common Sense article).
• Sources: 29% of more than 2,100 audited citations came from user-generated sites such as forums and social posts, shown in the same format as institutional sources.
• Crisis signals: AI Overview gave an appropriate hotline or medical referral in 58% of referral-warranted prompts, AI Mode in 77%, against the Institute's own 95% threshold.

Read this with its context. Common Sense is an advocacy organization, and it states that its Institute is funded by philanthropy and industry, including makers of some products it evaluates. Google told PBS News it "could not reproduce or verify many of the responses highlighted in the report," and said parents "have controls to turn Search off" (PBS News). The Institute says Google reported changes to some prompts, which it had not verified before publication.

What you can actually configure

Work through this list once, in this order. None of it removes AI answers from Google everywhere; together it reduces how often a young child meets them alone.

1. Make sure your child searches signed in to their own supervised account. Family Link says its SafeSearch preferences "can't be enforced" if your child isn't signed in (Family Link).
2. Leave SafeSearch on "Filter." It's locked by default on supervised accounts. Know its limit: SafeSearch filters explicit content and "only works on Google Search" (SafeSearch help). It does not switch off AI Overviews.
3. Show your child the Web filter. After a search, choose "Web" (sometimes under "More"). Google says this "displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews" (Google). It works one search at a time, and the AI Overview has already appeared by the time you switch (PBS News).
4. Turn off the Gemini app separately in Family Link if you don't want your child using it. That setting does not affect Search.
5. For young children, consider a different search engine. DuckDuckGo documents an AI-free version at noai.duckduckgo.com that turns off its AI features and filters AI-generated images "as best we can," plus a setting to turn its Search Assist off (DuckDuckGo help, opt-out steps). Google's SafeSearch lock doesn't carry over to another engine, so set that engine's own filters too.
6. The blunt option: block Google Search. Family Link lets you turn off Search in the Google app on Android and block google.com in Chrome on an Android device or Chromebook. Google warns your child may still reach Search in other browsers unless you block those apps too. Give them a replacement first, or homework will stall.
7. Lock down extensions on a Chromebook. Family Link can allow or block extension installs from the Chrome Web Store (Family Link and Chrome). That matters if you use, or your child finds, an extension that claims to hide AI answers.

For the rest of the phone, tablet and Chromebook settings worth checking, use our AI safety settings checklist.

Tips you'll see online: which ones are official

If you want the udm=14 workaround on a family computer anyway, Chrome lets you add a site search with a "URL with %s in place of query" and make it the default (Chrome help), for example https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14. Treat it as a convenience for your household, not a control. It does nothing in the Google app, on a school-managed Chromebook where the admin may choose the search engine, or on any other device.

School Chromebooks: what to expect

Google's Workspace admin help, which lists what changes for students under 18, says AI Overviews and AI Mode "are available" to Workspace for Education users under 18 in most countries and languages. It does not describe an admin switch to remove them (Google Workspace Admin Help). Schools can lock SafeSearch and control the separate Gemini app, so the useful question is how teachers handle AI answers in assignments.

Copy this note to your child's teacher if it helps (a KidsAiTools example):

Hi [teacher name], a quick question about research at school.
Google shows AI Overviews on student accounts, and they can't be
switched off. When my child uses Google for an assignment, is it
OK to use the AI summary, or should they cite the original pages?
Is there a search tool or the "Web" filter you'd like them to use?
Thanks. We'll practice checking sources at home.

For the rest of a new school device, see what to check the first night.

A realistic plan for this week

A two-minute script: teach your child to check AI answers

Common Sense suggests asking the same question twice, opening the links, and asking who wrote them and what evidence they give. Here is that advice as a script you can use at the kitchen table (a KidsAiTools example):

Grown-up: "See this box at the top? A computer wrote it by mixing
lots of websites together. It's often right, but sometimes it's
wrong and sounds just as sure."

Check 1 - Ask again: "Let's search the same question a second way.
Do both answers match?"

Check 2 - Open a source: "Tap one link. Who wrote this page?
A museum, a school, a doctor's group, or just someone posting?"

Check 3 - Find one more: "Can a trusted source say the same thing?"

Rule: "If the answer is about your body, your feelings, or
something scary, close it and come find me."

Run it once on a fun question ("How long do sloths sleep?") so the habit isn't tied to a scary moment. For more practice activities, see teaching kids to spot AI misinformation.

If your child is in crisis in the US, you can call, text or chat 988 (988 Lifeline), available 24/7.

FAQ

Does SafeSearch turn off Google AI Overviews?

No. SafeSearch filters explicit content in Google results. Common Sense ran its tests with SafeSearch on and still saw AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Can my child's school turn off AI Overviews on a Chromebook?

Google's Workspace admin help says AI Overviews and AI Mode are available to students under 18 in most countries and doesn't describe a way to remove them. Schools can enforce SafeSearch and manage the Gemini app.

Does the udm=14 trick work, and is it safe?

It's an unofficial workaround that third-party guides link to the Web filter. Google doesn't document it. It's harmless to try on your own browser, but your child can remove it, and it doesn't apply in the Google app or on other devices.

Can I block only AI Mode and keep regular Google Search?

We found no Google setting that does this. Family Link can block Google Search as a whole. The Web filter and other search engines are the practical alternatives.

Is the Gemini app the same as AI Overviews?

No. Gemini is Google's separate chatbot app, and parents can turn it off in Family Link. AI Overviews and AI Mode are part of Google Search.

Make it work in your family

You now know what can and can't be switched off. The harder question is what your household's rules are for AI answers at homework time, and what to say the first time your child copies one into an assignment. The KidsAiTools Parent Library has family scripts and rules for those moments. See the KidsAiTools Parent Library.