How To Control Your Photo Tags On FB

Everyone has That Friend: the one who will post anything and everything to social media as long as they look good — even if, in the background of each photo, you can be found in yet another inventively embarrassing situation. Indeed, knowing how to control your tags on Facebook can certainly come in handy when your friends get a little overzealous with sharing photos, but that's not the only reason to keep an eye on what appears on your Timeline. The vast majority of employers check out applicants' social media pages before they hire anyone, and even if your job gives you a fair amount of leeway, sometimes you just don't want a photo of yourself hula-hooping in sweatpants with one eye half-closed plastered all over everyone's News Feeds. (Yes, this has happened to me. No, I don't want to talk about it.)

Although you can untag yourself once the damage is done, there's no easy way to prevent people from tagging you in the first place. According to Facebook's Help Center, blocking someone entirely will keep them from tagging you, but they won't be able to message you, see your posts, or add you as a friend anymore. If your only qualm is that they tag you in too many photos, your best bet is to talk to them in person — a terrifying prospect, I know, but one that's the least likely to cause dramatics.

That being said, Facebook does have a way to control what appears on your Timeline: The "Timeline Review," which allows you to choose what appears on your profile, has been around for a while, although not everyone is aware of it. Basically, if you have the right settings switched on, photos and posts in which you've been tagged by others will have to earn your stamp of approval before they appear on your Timeline — which means that if you don't want them to, they'll never appear on your Timeline. (They will, however, still show up on News Feeds and in search results, so bear that in mind; at least you can always untag yourself completely from posts you'd rather not see the light of day).

Timeline Review automatically turns on for people you aren't friends with already, but here's a step-by-step guide to turning the feature on for your friends' posts:

1. Pull Up Settings

You can navigate to the Settings page from anywhere on Facebook: Just click on the arrow pointing down in the far right corner of the page.

2. Find "Timeline And Tagging"

In the left column, you'll find the "Timeline and Tagging" section. Find the option reading, "Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?" and click "edit" on the far right.

3. Enable The "Timeline Review" Function

Select the option to enable Timeline Review, and you're good to go! From here on out, you'll get notifications directing you to approve or hide the posts in which you're tagged. In the meantime, you can go back to untagging yourself from all those humiliating high school pictures.

Images: Luke Chan/E+/Getty Images; Claire Warner/Bustle (2)