Facebook has started letting teens share their posts publicly by removing the restriction that was previously applicable for users under 18, leading safety groups to fear more cyber bullying is now possible.
Users under 18 previously had limited choice as to who could view their posts and photos. However, all that changed when on October 16, Facebook tweaked the privacy option for teens.
"Teens are among the savviest people using social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard," said Facebook in a statement. "So, starting today, people aged 13 through 17 will also have the choice to post publicly on Facebook."
Prior to the setting change, those between 13 to 17 years of age were only able to share pictures, photographs etc. with only their immediate friends on the social networking site.
The tweak in privacy will now enable users to activate the "Follow" feature, which lets public posts become visible in News Feeds.
"While only a small fraction of teens using Facebook might choose to post publicly, this update now gives them the choice to share more broadly, just like on other social media services," notes Facebook. "We are also looking at ways to improve the way teens use messages and connect with people they may know."
The tweaks from Facebook come in the face of competition from services like Twitter. However, safety groups are of the opinion that Facebook is compromising on the safety and privacy of its teenage users to grow its business further.
"Teens don't necessarily have good judgment and to the extent that they make themselves visible to the wider public, there's all kind of people - from predators to junk food marketers - who are surveilling Facebook for new kinds of targets," said Jeffrey Chester, Executive Director of the non-profit Center for Digital Democracy.
Facebook, however, defends its stand an declares that it takes the "safety of teens very seriously" and, therefore, a mechanism whereby teens see an extra reminder before they share information publicly is in place.
"When teens choose 'Public' in the audience selector, they?ll see a reminder that the post can be seen by anyone, not just people they know, with an option to change the post's privacy," per Facebook.
Moreover, with the setting option being as is unless changed, it is upto the individual whether they want to opt for the feature or not.
