Google has come under fire as of late with all new privacy policy changes, real name restrictions and forced Google+ account creation. But today Bradley Horowitz, VP of Product – Google+, released a public post on his Google+ profile letting the world know of of upcoming safety enhancements for teens. Horowitz stated:
With Google+, 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).
The new safety features include increased security around those outside of circles and providing more information that is easily accessible for teens. Some of the exact changes are:
Alerts When Sharing Outside of Circles If a teen tries to share information to those outside of their circles, a notification will show. This will advice the underage user of the action that they are committing.
Notifications From Those In Circles Google notifications have quickly become a source of spam and Google+ and outsiders will be blocked for teens. No notifications will be shown to a teenager unless they have that user in their circles. This will help to keep strangers and offensive profiles out of teens’ profiles.
Hangout-side of Circles Underage Google+ users who are engaging in a hangout will now have additional alerts when strangers join the video chat. If a participant enters the hangout that isn’t in the user’s circles, their camera and mic are muted and they will have to knowingly rejoin the session.
Google+ Safety Center A new resource for students, parents and educators now exists, the Google+ Safety Center. This section was created to help notify users of the new privacy changes and inform about what Google+ is. All the links in the Google+ Safety Center escort users to the support.google.com help resources.
All of these changes have been released and are currently deployed on Google+.
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