14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is making some changes to its default settings for teenagers. The idea is to better emulate the services teens find interesting these days when fewer and fewer are spending time with Facebook. And, even if they do, they almost always do it because they "have" to.
As of today, new Facebook accounts by people between 13 and 17 years old will get some new default settings and some new options.
For example, they'll be able to make public posts, viewable by anyone online. Previously, posts could be shared only with friends and friends of friends. However, Facebook is also changing the default privacy of posts to "friends" from "friends of friends," while providing users with a tutorial on how to change this.
When choosing to post something publicly, teens will get a notification reminding them that what they are about to post will be visible to anyone online.
"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. So, starting today, people aged 13 through 17 will also have the choice to post publicly on Facebook," the social network explains.
"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," Facebook adds.
The company is also enabling the "Follow" option for teenagers, which makes it possible for others to subscribe to their posts without actually becoming friends. This feature has been available for the past year or so, but only to adult users.
Note that the changes are to new accounts only. Facebook has an agreement with the FTC which prevents it from changing the default privacy settings of users without getting their approval first.