Warning for public Share: Facebook changes privacy ... - ABC Online

The world’s largest online network Facebook changed the privacy settings for teens: users aged 13 to 17 years of age will be able to make visible for all public records in the future

So far, the shared texts, photos and videos could be seen only by their friends or friends of friends. If the teens now allow a larger group of recipients, appears to them the first time, a warning, such as Facebook announced in a blog post late Wednesday.

At the same time in new Facebook members 13-17 years of age in the future as a standard receiver circuit entries for their “just friends” preset. So far, the information has been released automatically for friends of friends. The default setting for existing users does not change, but they will also get the warning on their first public record

The warning consists of a pop-up window where it says. “Did you know that public posts can be seen by everyone, not just people, you know? “It is pointed out that the users and all marked in the post so that friends can receive friend requests and messages from people they do not know personally. Followed by a shorter second warning if you still want to post public entries.

“We have paid particular attention to a clear, understandable language,” the Facebooks German policy officer Gunnar Bender said to the warnings. Facebook it was important that young users could post public posts only after they go through in this way a “learning curve”. “We want to give young people the opportunity to reach a wider public.” There were about politically engaged teenagers such as the Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai, were important for the wide-ranging communication capabilities. The 16-year-old, which advocates for children’s rights, had become world famous after an assassination attempt by the Taliban.

Facebook pointed out in the blog entry at the same time that teens could also post publicly on other online services. Also you will be able to unlock their entries with the online network for subscribers. “We take very seriously the safety of teenagers,” said Facebook and drew attention to the warnings.

Privacy on Facebook with its over one billion members, there are discussions for years. In the U.S., Facebook agreed to regular checks for 20 years after investigations into a bewildering changes to the settings. In Germany, some privacy advocates such as Schleswig-Holstein, Thilo Weichert from the network before throwing systematic rule violations. At the urging of data protection Facebook introduced in Europe the automatic recognition of the faces of friends in photos. At the same time founder Mark Zuckerberg has abandoned earlier attempts to force the user to more public records on Facebook.