Illustration of Facebook mobile interface (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Facebook Defends Teen Usage Policy

Facebook has decided to loosen its restrictions on teen uses. The company argues that teens are experts at controlling their privacy. In previous years, posts by teenagers could not be seen by a public audience. They could only been seen by friends. Teens did not have the option of making their posts visible to the public. However, in the past, teenagers had looser privacy settings on their account.

In response to changes to the Facebook teen usage policy, the site is tightening its default privacy settings on the accounts of teenagers. Facebook states that only ten percent of people do not change their default privacy settings.

The company will also introduce additional tools to help teens make wise decisions about sees their posts. Teens will have to make a conscious decision of who will see what they share. The removal of the instructions gives teenagers the same privacy settings as adult Facebook users. 

Law enforcement agencies believe the change will help teens become more aware of their Facebook activity.  Teens have been asking for the looser restrictions. Facebook is the only giant social network that has separate privacy settings for teenagers. Other social networking giants, such as Twitter, do not have special privacy settings for teenage users.
 
Several teenagers have stated they prefer Twitter because they site does has lesser restrictions on teenagers. Several young people have stated that Facebook needs to change their settings if they want to compete with Twitter. The law requires all users of social networking sites to be at least 13 years old.