Teens sharing publicly on Facebook: Privacy is not the issue

Facebook today announced changes to its privacy rules for teenagers from the age group of 13 to 17 who are on the site. Teens in this age group can now share their posts publicly on Facebook. Previously they were restricted to ‘Friends’ or ‘Friends of Friends’ only setting. The change means that underage Facebook users can now share their posts, photos, links etc with the public setting thus making that content available to those who are not on even on their friends list. Facebook wrote in its official blog stating that, “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.” Facebook also acknowledged that “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 employee walks past a sign at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. AP The decision has of course sparked off privacy concerns given that the decision affects users who are often not seen as mature, and can face possible cyber-bullying. However the fact is that Facebook is a public company now and needs to ensure that it’s youngest users don’t feel left out. Rival Twitter for instance allows all Tweets to be public ( users can choose to set tweets as private) and Facebook also needs to ensure that it doesn’t lose out the upcoming younger generation to rivals. Kathryn Montgomery, an American University professor of communications who has written a book about how the Internet affects children, told Associated Press “On the one hand, you want to encourage kids to participate in the digital world, but they are not always very wise about how they do it. Teens tend to take more risks and don’t always understand the consequences of their behavior.” Add to that the growing incidents of cyber-bullying means that the public post can ensure that a victimised teen’s online mocking is available for everyone to see on Facebook, not just a restricted Facebook friends list. Emily Bazelon, a journalist and author of the book Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy, told the New York Times, “It’s risky to have teenagers posting publicly. The kids who might be the most likely to do that might not have the best judgment about what they post.”  Some view the option as another way for Facebook to ensure that more private information reaches advertisers. While there’s no denying that teens can and do face cyber-bullying on social media, one also can’t overlook the fact that the current generation is fundamentally different from the those who grew up without the Internet being a constant presence in their lives.  Teens today are born digital natives in ways which the rest of us can never be. Also many teens, even pre-teens are on Facebook. They are smart enough to fill fake birth dates so that they can easily join Facebook and other social networking sites. Nor is Facebook the only social network they are on. Texting apps like WhatsApp, SnapChat, etc are popular among teens. WhatsApp has the option to broadcast a message to a larger audience. For teens, today social media is an integral part of interacting – not just online, but also off it. Some of them are perhaps already sharing photos, messages, etc that are publicly available on other social networks. To single out Facebook for changing its privacy settings is not fair. The debate should perhaps look at how teens interact with the Internet and more importantly how they view it. Some teens might already view the Internet as a great public forum, and not necessarily a private forum.  For some, Facebook is probably linked to the image they wish to portray to the world.  And this view isn’t limited to teenagers but also adults who use Facebook. In such cases, public settings won’t radically change anything for them. The real debate shouldn’t be around whether teen users should have the option of sharing publicly on Facebook but on what Facebook does with that information.