Google's fledgling Social Networking effort, Google Buzz, launched in February 2010 and immediately caused a storm of controversy over its privacy and safety implications.
Bloggers and tech writers worried about the 'opt-out' nature of the service (which meant that all Google Mail users were instantly members, whether they liked it or not), the lack of control over personal information such as photographs and friend lists, and the geolocation features (which made it possible to disclose your exact location from your mobile phone).
Surprisingly, the service has seen a relatively slow uptake amongst young people, with most social networking users preferring to stick with their Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter accounts.
Find out what your children are writing in any Social Network
with Spysure Home Version's Keylogger feature.
In response to the controversy, Google has made several 'tweaks' to the privacy controls in Google Buzz and, on 5th April, announced a privacy 'reset' which will prompt users to view and (if necessary) change their privacy settings the next time they log on.
Google has also published several tips and a short video (available below) aimed at teenagers to help them use the service safely. Whilst these tips are written for Buzz, they contain general advice that can easily be applied to other social networking sites:
1. Keep your private information private.
Posting publicly on the Web means that whatever you post is visible to all of your followers. It shows up on your public Google profile and may appear in Google search results.
2. Know who's following you.
Buzz sends a notification after someone starts following you and you can chose to block them. If you block someone Buzz doesn't send them a message so they won't necessarily know they've been blocked.
3. Control your Google profile.
Before you can post on Buzz, you have to set up a public profile, but you don't have to share anything more than your first and last name on the profile. The video reminds you that if you have a photo associated with your Gmail account, "you can chose to use this use this as your profile photo as well" but you can change or remove the photo if you don't want it to be public. You can also elect whether you want your list of followers to show up publicly on your profile.
4. Manage posts and comments.
Teens are reminded that they can edit and delete their own posts and delete any comments on your posts and you can remove comments you've made on other people's posts.
5. Know how to turn it off.
If you no longer want to use Buzz, you can disable it from Gmail settings. You can also hide Buzz in Gmail but still get it on your phone.
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