When Google
launched Google+ in June, 2010, it was for adults only. Now it’s open to
anyone 13 or older. The reason Google kept teens off the service at
first is not because the social network was ever about what
we euphemistically call “adult content,” but because Google wanted to
take extra time to get it right before opening the doors to people under
18.
After several months of testing, Google thinks it’s reached a good
balance. In rolling out the teen welcome mat, Bradley Horowitz,
Google’s Product VP for Google+ said, “We want to help teens build
meaningful connections online. We also want to provide features that
foster safety alongside self-expression. Today we’re doing both, for
everyone who’s old enough for a Google Account (13+ in most countries).”
For the most part, teens’ experience on Google+ will be just like
adults, but there are some special safeguards for users under 18. Google
didn’t put any major breaks on teens — it’s giving them plenty of
freedom to express themselves to their friends or even to the world, but
it did make some of the default settings for teens more restrictive
than for adults. If teens (or adults) decide to change them, they can,
but how a service sets its defaults is very important. It’s a type of
recommendation — the company’s way of saying “this is how we think most
people should use our service,” and — besides — most people never get
around to changing defaults.
Circular logic
Everyone on Google+ is encouraged to create circles where they group
their friends and other contacts. You could have a circle of just family
members, another circle of schoomates and another circle of people on
your soccer team. You can have as many circles as you want and you can
call the circles whatever you want to call them. People in your circles
are notified, but don’t know the name of the circle(s) you’ve put them
in. And it’s asyncronous. You can be one of my circles, but you don’t
have to put me in any of yours. In that case, you’d see what I post to
circles you’re in but I’d only see what you post to the public, unless
you added me to one of your circles.
Circles work the same for teens as they do for adults, but there are
some special safeguards consisting of warnings and different default
settings.
Safeguards for teens
- If teens post something directed to extended circles or the public, they’ll get a warning reminding them that “when you share to your extended circles, people you haven’t added to your circles will be able to view your post and may be able to comment.”
- All Google+ users can control “who can notify me.” For adults, the default is “anyone,” but for teens the default is people in their circles.
- By default, anyone can comment on an adult’s public posts, but for teens it’s only people in their circles.
- There are also some differences in the profile defaults. Your profile is where others can see a bit about who you are and who you interact with on Google+. By default, employment and Education can be seen by anyone (Public) if you’re an adult, but for teens, the default is “just your circles.”
- Some profile features are set to “only me,” including home contact info, work contact info and birth-date.
- By default, location information isn’t attached to teens’ posts
- Adults’ “Relationship Status” can be seen by people in their extended circles, but only in “your circles” for teens.
- In the hang-out feature, up to 10 people can have a video chat. For teens if someone outside any of their circles joins in, the teen is temporarily pulled out of the hangout and asked if they want to continue. It’ a way of pausing the action for a second and encouraging the teen to think about whether he or she wants to remain in this hangout.
| Posted by Azziet Singh follow me on twitter |