Facebook Allow Teens to Post Globally

The social network claimed teenagers would now be able to manually change settings and share their posts with the public. Until now, the post of those under 18 could only be viewed by their friends, and by friends of their friends.
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Facebook explained that teenagers are “among the savviest people using social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a film, they want to be heard”.

This update will give teens the choice to share more broadly, just like on the rest of social media services. Perhaps, Facebook decided to make this move because of the increasing competition for younger users from new mobile and social services, like SnapChat and WhatsApp.

But some industry experts think that Facebook is sacrificing the safety and privacy of teenage users to further its business. They point out that teenagers don’t always have good judgment and to the extent that they make themselves visible to the broader public, there is all kind of people, including predators and junk food marketers, who surveille social media for new targets. Although other social media services also let teenagers share data with the broader public, the amount of personal details people have on Facebook is more extensive than on other social services, where users are able to create accounts with pseudonyms.

In addition, teenagers will now also be able to use the “Follow” feature. The latter allows users to automatically receive public posts from another user without them being mutual friends. The company claimed that the changes would allow teenagers to share data which might benefit from dissemination to a broader audience, like fundraising efforts or promotion of a teen rock band.

The company promised to show teenage users a special notice when they attempt to post information to the broader public, reminding them that the information can be seen by everyone. In the meantime, the restrictions on teen use of the website’s private messaging feature won’t change. Like before, the users under 18 will only be able to receive messages from their friends and from friends of their friends.