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Set country and age restrictions for your Google+ profile and content

If you’d like to share posts or other content meant for a specific age group or country, you can use your Google+ settings to choose who sees that content.

For more details about what is and isn’t allowed on Google+, please read our User Content and Conduct Policy.

Restrict access by age or location

Restrict by selecting an age range

  1. On your computer, Open Google+.

  2. In the top left corner, click Menu and then Settings .
  3. At the bottom of the page, under Other and then Target Audience, click Edit.
  4. Next to Target Audience, click Down arrow icon to choose the type of people you want to reach. You can pick: “Anyone,” “Users 18 and older,” or “Users 21 or older,” or "Custom."
  5. At the bottom of the page, click the box confirming you’ve read the instructions and then click Save.

Restrict by setting a minimum age

  1. On your computer, Open Google+.
  2. In the top left corner, click Menu and then Settings .
  3. At the bottom of the page, under Other and then Target Audience, click Edit.
  4. Next to Target Audience, click Down arrow icon and then click Custom.
  5. Next to Global Settings, click Down arrow icon and then click Minimum user age and then type an age.
  6. At the bottom of the page, click the box confirming you’ve read the instructions and then click Save.

Restrict access by location

  1. On your computer, Open Google+.
  2. In the top left corner, click Menu and then Settings .
  3. At the bottom of the page, under Other and then Target Audience, click Edit.
  4. Next to Target Audience, click Down arrow icon and then click Custom.
  5. In the search box under Country-specific settings, type the name of the country and click Down arrow icon to select who can view your content. You can choose “Anyone,” “No one,” or set a minimum age for users in that country.
  6. Click Add and then at the bottom of the page, click the box confirming you’ve read the instructions and thenSave.

Note: You can change your settings at any time. If you add more restrictions, people who’ve seen your profile and content in the past may not be able to see all your content anymore.

If you remove restrictions, it will only affect what you post after you changed your settings. It won’t change who can see the content you posted before you changed your settings.

What restricted users can and can’t see

Restricted users may be able to see some of your content, even if you’ve used your settings to choose who can see your content.

What restricted users can see What restricted users can’t see
Your profile name, profile photo, and cover photo Your posts after restrictions were turned on
Photos (including those shared through posts), communities, hangouts, events, reviews, and any Google+ content other than posts Certain information in the “About” section of your profile
Comments you’ve made from your profile  
Your YouTube channel and videos, unless you’ve turned on age restriction settings through YouTube  

Note: Some Google+ features require owners or moderators, like communities and events. Owners and moderators can see and manage the content you share on their page, even if they’re in a category you have restricted.

Some other things to keep in mind:

  • Signed in or out: If you use target audience settings, they’ll apply to signed-in Google users who’ve added their birthday to their account. If a person is signed out, they won’t be able to see age restricted content. Country-specific restrictions will apply whether the person is signed in or out.
  • Impacted content: Your target audience settings currently affect posts, and some information on the About tab. But in the future, they may affect other content you post, too. If that happens, this article will be updated to explain the changes.
  • Finding content through search: Even if you use these restrictions, people may still find your content by searching for it. That means your target audience settings will not change how your content is seen by search engines, web crawlers, or the Google+ API.
Special considerations for regulated goods and services

You can’t use Google+ to facilitate the sale of regulated goods like alcohol or tobacco. If you do, Google may remove the offending content, or suspend your account.

Automatically or administratively restricted profiles

In some cases, we may restrict profiles because of legal or policy considerations. When this happens, these restrictions can't be changed, but additional restrictions can be added.

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