Google today dropped the age requirement from 18 to 13 for teenagers who want to join Google+, bringing Google+ in line with Facebook’s age policy. Bradley Horowitz, Google VP, product management, also announced new features for teen users.
If teens post messages that are seen publicly, Google will show a popup notification warning them that anyone can view and comment on their post.
Also, for Google+ Hangouts, if someone who isn’t a teen’s Circle enters a hangout, the teen will be removed from the video chat service.
Horowitz also mentioned that, by default, teens can only communicate with people they’ve placed in their Circles by default, though this is the same setting for adults.
Google is also working on a new Google+ Safety Center for teens, parents and teachers.
No doubt this is a move to further inflate Google+ usage. Google announced that 90 million people have created accounts, though later admitted to some fuzzy math. Plus, Google is now forcing new users to join Google+ by default when signing up for a new Google account.