Parents and privacy watchdogs have suggested that Google Inc.'s new social networking tool, called Buzz, may render children at risk.

The concern emerged in a personal way for technology analyst Charlene Li. On Sunday night, she found that her 9-year-old daughter had publicly shared a personal conversation on Buzz without intending to. A troubled Li landed on a high when she found her daughter's fourth-grade classmates chatting with strangers.

"These are fourth-graders who have no clue", Li wrote in a blog post. "Imagine parents (and kids) checking out their Buzz accounts to find that 'iorgyinbathrooms' is following them, which is exactly what happened with my child's account".

Google posted that it had no fixed plans to tweak Buzz addressing parents' privacy concerns. "We designed Buzz to make it easy to have conversations with your friends about the things that interest you. Keeping kids safe online is very important to us", spokesman Scott Rubin posted in a statement.

University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron reflected Google is not legally required to confirm the ages of Buzz users, but should.