Facebook announced a pair of changes to the privacy settings for teen users on Wednesday. On the plus side, teens’ post will now be shared with a smaller group of people by default. On the potentially problematic side, they’ll also be able to share things with the public for the first time.
In a way, both of these these two changes give teens more control. Facebook’s changing the default share setting from “Friends of Friends” to just “Friends” ought to lead to fewer instances of teens sharing things with people they didn’t want to share them with. They’ll still be able to select “Friends of Friends”, but it’ll take a couple of extra clicks.
The new public sharing option is a little more iffy. While it’s often great to give the youngs more freedom, it also gives them more chances to embarrass themselves. For the first few times a teen shares publicly, Facebook will prompt them to confirm their decision. So when the comments on those awkward dance party photos get rough, they can’t say Facebook didn’t warn them. [Facebook]
Pictures: Shutterstock/Northfoto, Facebook