The first feature I’d like to see added to sites isn’t one that I’d probably use, but there are still a couple places I’d like to see it implemented, and that’s the option to opt out of the social aspect of the site.  Which probably makes very little sense in most cases, but could be useful on a site like Wesabe which is useful for tracking my spending habits, but not something I necessarily want to share with other folks on the site, or anywhere on the web for that matter.  I would like for my Wesabe account to be invisible to all other users, or I at least want the option to opt out.

The second feature, and far more important, is that control to block the accounts of minors .  I don’t want to see them nor do I want them to be able to see my account.  There’s no reason I can think of for minors to interact with my social pages.  (The one exception being a relative.)  This seems like it should already be the default setting, when a person sets his age to under 18 that account should automatically be invisible to any adult figure who is not specifically listed as a family member.  (Lying about age is the parents’ burden.)  Which isn’t to say that every adult is a pedophile, but only to say that social websites should be doing more to protect minors, and this seems like a reasonably easy fix to implement.

Let us all play prevent from the get go.  Change our default settings so we’re not forced to opt out completely from using your service.    Thank you.

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Social Networking Sites Need Two More Features was first posted to justinll.com on February 15, 2009.