One’s on Facebook! Queen joins her grandchildren on the world’s biggest social networking site

Royal protocol doesn’t yet cover the correct way to ‘poke’ the Queen.

But as of today, Her Majesty has joined Facebook, the social networking site already popular with all her grandchildren.

However, unlike some of the younger Royals – who have been caught out when their private moments were revealed online – the official page for the British Monarchy will strictly concern itself with official news and engagements.

Court and social: How the Queen's page might look if Royals behaved like most Facebook users

Facebook users, who send virtual ‘pokes’ to attract each other’s attention, will be able to receive frequent updates on the Royal Family’s activities by ‘liking’ the new account.

The official page will feature images, videos, news and speeches as well as an application which enables subjects to search for Royal events in their area through the Court Circular, the official record of the Royal Family’s engagements that has been produced daily since 1803.

‘The Queen has approved the decision – she knows all about Facebook,’ says an aide. ­

‘Facebook is the final frontier of the Royal Family’s foray into digital technology.

‘It’s basically the Royal Household’s way of broadening its appeal and communicating to members of the public. The Queen knows all her grandchildren use Facebook and it would be remiss of the Household not to be keeping up-to-date with the web.’

The decision to sign up to Facebook is the latest move by the Queen to tap into social media and networking sites.



Earlier this year the Monarchy opened an account on the photo-sharing website Flickr, which to date hosts more than 1,400 pictures, including images of the Queen visiting HMS Ark Royal on Friday, Royal investitures and Queen Mary’s exquisite dolls’ house at Windsor Castle.



Last year a Royal Twitter account known as @BritishMonarchy was launched. It now has almost 70,000 followers and has posted more than 4,500 ‘tweets’.

The Household has also had a YouTube channel since October 2007.



Videos on The Royal Channel have been viewed more than eight million times since then, and it boasts 32,000 subscribers.



The British Monarchy: This is how the real page will look as the Queen tries to tap into social media and networking sites

The Queen already has an ­unofficial Facebook fan page set up in her name with 13,228 followers.



On the site, Her Majesty’s interests are listed as ‘hunting, fishing and being God blessed’.



Among the topics on its discussion are ‘God Save The Queen’, while one Royalist, Josh Rollason, has commented on Her Majesty’s status: ‘The Queen is brilliant, God save her and her family,’ and fellow Royal fan April Millington posted recently: ‘God bless our kind, noble and ­gracious Queen.’

The new, official British Monarchy Facebook page will display Press releases and speeches as well as information about Royal events and ceremonies with a searchable UK map.



Users who sign up to the page – created as a three-way collaboration between Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and the Royal ­Collection – will receive daily updates via their news feed with links to the Royal YouTube ­channel.



While Facebook is a novelty to the Queen, the younger Royals are no strangers to the site.



Princes William and Harry both have pages on the site under secret names.



Their pages have strict ­privacy settings which do not allow users, even if they know the code name, to access their pictures or wall or add them as a friend.



The high privacy settings were installed after a series of Facebook pranks in 2007 when an internet user set up a fake page in the name of William Wales and successfully ‘added’ a number of Prince William’s real friends, including Harry’s former girlfriend Chelsy Davy and polo-playing pal Luke Tomlinson.



William has since set up other Facebook pages under the pseudonyms ‘Wills Wombat Wales’ and ‘Bobby Davro’.



Princesses Eugenie (left) and Beatrice have both improved their privacy settings after being caught out



Both Princesses Beatrice and ­Eugenie also have Facebook pages with large numbers of friends. ­

Beatrice, who is studying history at Goldsmiths College, University of London, lists her favourite activities as ‘skiing, riding and running’, her favourite movie as The Sound Of Music and her favourite band as Mumford & Sons.



She is also listed as belonging to the Goldsmiths network and the St George’s School network.



The Princesses have, however, been caught out on Facebook.



Princess Eugenie cemented her reputation as a party animal when pictures of herself knocking back shots, holding cans of Red Stripe Jamaican lager and clutching ­packets of her favourite Marlboro Lights cigarettes were posted on the site.



She recently landed herself in more hot water when pictures of her making ‘piggy’ faces with Sellotape strapped to her nose were posted.



And two years ago, photographs of ­Princess Beatrice partying ­during her gap year in Thailand appeared on the site.



Both girls have since improved their privacy settings.

