Yesterday, Facebook posted an important note about teenagers. For the first time, 13 to 17 year olds have the option of making everything they post on Facebook public.
Facebook claims that this is ok because “Teens are among the savviest people using social media”
From their site:
On Facebook, you control who you share with. That can be a single person in a message, a small group, with friends, or with the world.
Each time you share a status update, you choose the audience you want to share with. Unless you change it, the audience remains the same for future posts.
Up until today, for people aged 13 through 17, the initial audience of their first post on Facebook was set to “Friends of Friends” – with the option to change it.
Going forward, when people aged 13 through 17 sign up for an account on Facebook, the initial audience of their first post will be set to a narrower audience of “Friends.”