Facebook, which has been used as a social networking site by thousands of high school and college students (and more recently -- adults) for years, is opening user profiles to popular search engines. You can read more about the change on InformationWeek.
According to the InformationWeek article one aspect of Facebook's new search engine openness is to change the default privacy setting from "Restricted" to "Everyone." If this change is indeed true, then thousands of users may be unaware that their profiles are now (or soon will be) searchable.
One of the key factors for many users was the perceived safety and privacy precautions that Facebook offered. Facebook had the reputation of being one of the safest social networking sites on the Internet.
The key if you have a child on Facebook, of course, is to make sure that your child's privacy controls are set to restricted so that their profile is NOT open to the public. We will make sure that our child's profile is protected, but I am concerned for the thousands of children whose parents may not be aware of the change or may not monitor their child's Facebook usage.
You can read more about this topic on the Know More Media network:
What about you? Do you have children who use Facebook (or want to use Facebook)? Will Facebook's new policy affect whether or not you allow your high school aged children to access the site?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Comment Preview