New Google+ Safety Center & Privacy Features Rolled Out For Teens

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+.