Since the launch of Google+ back in July of last year, only adults over the age of 18 were allowed to sign up for an account. All that changed on Thursday when Google engineer Bradley Horowitz (Vice President Product Management for Google+) announced that Google+ is now officially open to teenagers!
In addition to this, new privacy and safety features have been implemented to make sure that teenagers will have a safe sharing environment.
From Bradley Horowitz’s post:
Teens and young adults are the most active Internet users on the planet. And surprise, surprise: they’re also human beings who enjoy spending time with friends and family. Put these two things together and it’s clear that teens will increasingly connect online. Unfortunately, online sharing is still second-rate for this age group.
Horowitz goes into further detail about the privacy features on his Google+ post. Here are some of the bullet points:
- Safety starts with circles
- Teens will be encouraged (though not limited) to share with circles rather than publicly
- By default, only those in a teenagers circle can send them notifications
- If a stranger outside a teen’s circle joins a Hangout they are a part of, the teen will be temporarily removed and allowed to choose if they want to re-join
Google+ also welcomed some teen-oriented businesses pages, and celebrities with this roll out, including:
- +Ashley Tisdale
- +Cody Simpson
- +GLEE
- +Google Science Fair
- +Nickelodeon
- +Selena Gomez
- +Teen Vogue
- +The Annoying Orange
- +Young Hollywood
- and many more…
You can find a shared circle with all of these profiles by clicking here. [HT +Louis Gray]
If you are a teenager, or a parent of a teenager, we encourage you to check out the Google+ Safety center for yourself. You can learn more about their privacy policies, online reputation management, cyber-bullying, and more.
While some may be skeptical of this new door Google has opened, I think there will be a lot of positive that will come out of it. I think Google+ is the perfect place for teenagers to share their online experiences and interactions in a way that is safe and fun!
What do you think about teenagers invading Google+? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
This announcement is insignificant if the intention is not included in Terms of Service. In Finland the age for being legally competent is 18. Google has been repeatedly addressed with a question: “what exactly does the requirement of legal competency mean in Finland”.
The question, yet unanswered:
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Problem no 1: Is the age limit for Google services 18 years in Finland or perhaps something else?
Google services are extremely interesting for school children. The functionalities of different Google services such as Google Docs are very useful in schools. There is however a problem with Google Terms of Service and the typical age of school children.
Google Terms of Service state: “2.3 You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google, “
There is a need for further clarification. In Finnish legislation individuals become legally fully competent when they turn 18. Finnish legislation includes also another form or level, limited capacity to enter into a legal contract. This means that children of under 18 years of age may control the assets and possessions they have earned by working or which the parent or guardian has given to the child.
Problem no 2: How can a Finnish user form a binding contract without having access to English version of Terms of Service?
Terms of Service state the following:
“3.1 Where Google has provided you with a translation of the English language version of the Terms, then you agree that the translation is provided for your convenience only and that the English language versions of the Terms will govern your relationship with Google.
3.2 If there is any contradiction between what the English language version of the Terms says and what a translation says, then the English language version shall take precedence.”
Now – where to find a English version of terms applicable in Finland? At http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS there is a drop down menu where user can select his/hers country. The behaviour of the page is a bit strange.
Supposedly the content shown depends on the locale or language setting of the user’s computer and browser. If the language is set to Finnish, the user cannot see anything but the Finnish translation. If the user uses the computer in English, the English version should be shown.
However, tests on Ubuntu 11.10. + Firefox 5 on August 17th show that a user located in Finland gets only the Finnish version even if the language setting would be English. With Chromium (12.0.742.112) the language setting has the desired effect: text is shown in English if the language setting is English and respectively in Finnish if the setting is Finnish.
How can a person form a binding contract with Google if he/she cannot access the binding English version of the text? Changing language setting is far too complicated for a layman to do and in some cases not even allowed by administrators.
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the real problem with g+, people really not able to absrob the g+ and able along with g+. i really login 2 or 3 time into g+.