Facebook Now Lets You Choose Someone to Manage Your Account After You Die

When Marblehead High School graduate Corey Docherty was found seriously injured in New Zealand Friday, Feb. 6, his friends and family set up a Facebook page for support and prayers.

That page quickly turned into a memorial for Docherty after the 22-year-old died of a stroke a few days later.

Friends, family and even acquaintances have used the page to share memories of Corey, silly photos of him as a child – including one where he is dressed in a sequined dress and gold, elbow-length gloves – and prayers for Corey and his family.

People often set up memorial pages similar to Remember Corey Docherty after a loved one passes away. Other than the occasional post on the deceased’s birthday or the anniversary of their death, however, their actual Facebook page often falls into limbo.

Corey Docherty changed his profile picture on Jan. 3. Now, his smiling selfie with a friend will forever be his face on the social media site.

But Facebook has set out to change that for future users who pass away. The company announced Thursday that they will now allow users to establish a “legacy contact” – a friend or family member authorized to take over your Facebook account posthumously.

Don’t worry, though. This doesn’t mean your mom will have free rein to scroll through all your embarrassing and private Facebook messages once you die.

Like other Facebook features, you can restrict the amount of access a legacy contact has to your account.

All legacy contacts will be able to:

• Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message)
• Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook
• Update the profile picture and cover photo

Once someone fills out a memorialization request on Facebook, the legacy contact will have access to your account. But the family member or friend you choose to handle your account after you die won’t be able to post as you (unless you give them your login information) and they can’t go through your Facebook messages.

Facebook gives you a couple of options for the new feature as well. You can choose whether or not a legacy contact has access to download an archive of photos, posts and profile information from your account to keep for sentimental reasons.

You can also tell Facebook to permanently delete your account after you pass away.

Here’s how to do it:

Go to Settings > Security > Legacy Contact. Type in the name of the person you want to manage your account. Click Add.

A box will pop up with the option to send your legacy contact a message letting them know that you’ve chosen them for the responsibility. The message is optional. If you choose not to send it, your legacy contact will be notified after your Facebook account is memorialized.

Facebook has also made some changes to its memorialized pages. Once someone lets the company know that a person has died, Facebook will add the word “Remembering” above their name.

“By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realized there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death, Facebook officials said.”

The company began rolling out the new feature Thursday, Feb. 12 in the United States. Facebook said they look forward to expanding the optional feature to other countries soon.

Images via Facebook.