Facebook Gives Teens a Longer Leash

By giving teens the option of posting in the public eye, Facebook's new rules have sparked yet another round of privacy concerns. On the other hand, "I'm not sure how many are going to want to turn on for all to see," suggested Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "In some ways, the less public stuff is of more concern."

Facebook on Thursday made two seemingly contradictory changes to its settings for teen users. On one hand, it narrowed the audience that can see teens' posts by default; at the same time, however, it made it possible for the first time for teens to open up their posts to the public at large.

Until now, the default audience for posts made by kids aged 13 through 17 was "friends of friends," and kids had the option to change it. Now, the initial setting will be the narrower set of "friends."
Far more controversial, however, has been the new ability for teens to make their posts visible to the public as well as to use the "Follow" feature, which lets people automatically receive posts from other users even if they are strangers.