Keeping Your Child Safe on Facebook
28 April, 2011
As a single website Facebook has had an incredible impact on how people use the internet. It is a site that has fitted very well with the social nature of people and really helped them to connect and communicate much more effectively than ever before. I can now keep up with large numbers of friends even though I live in Japan and have a hectic work and family life.
And as an almost daily user of Facebook I have come to know the site pretty well but often get caught out by how much information I share with people who I hardly know, and have also seen friends accidently post something to everyone that was meant to be restricted to a closed group.
As a business Facebook are fairly socially responsible in that they give all users the tools to ensure that they do not share anything that they do not want to with anyone that they do not want to. However, the default privacy settings are loose, which personally is how I like them; I like to hear from random long lost friends and also believe in being open about my life with others.
However, I now have a young son and do have internet safety concerns about him using social networking sites like Facebook because as well as for fun they are also used for the grooming of children by sex offenders as well as for Cyber bullying.
So, for parents concerned about their children’s safety online and use of Facebook in particular I thought that it would be good to run through the Facebook privacy options to outline what I consider a safe level of privacy that also allows children to enjoy the spirit of online social networking.
Facebook only officially allow children of 13 and above to open a Facebook account but as there is no method of verification on this many children under this age have Facebook accounts.
If your child is an underage Facebook user I would recommend that you suggest that the site has a minimum age restriction of 13 years of age for very good reasons and perhaps explain objectively a few of the risks to them and persuade them to wait another few years.
This post is “officially” targeting parents of the 13-16 age group of children.
First off is where to find the privacy settings – If you click on the account drop down and then hit “Privacy Settings” you will be in the right place.
Once on the privacy settings summary page you will see a link that says “customise settings” – you need to hit this.
You can see from the above screenshot that my privacy settings are currently on the default “open” settings.
I will now go into how to customise them for your children to increase their online safety.
On this I have set everything to friends only. The options are Friends only, Friends of friends and Everyone and then customise.
The problem with Friends of Friends is that it only takes one friend with a dodgy friend or family member to allow knowingly/unknowingly someone inappropriate in and for them to find out information about your child. In the customise options you can select only specific people to be able to view that form of content as well as being able to restrict from specific people.
These customise options may be good for allowing your children to avoid certain friends of friends that they do not want to communicate with but it does not help restrict access for people they do not know, unless of course they limit to only a few named friends.
I believe that simplicity is key here – only accept friend requests from people you know, trust and want to be friends with and then restrict all your outgoing content from anyone who is not a “friend” as if you do want to share it with someone in particular who is not currently a Facebook friend then you can send them a friend request.
Assuming that you agree with my thinking on the strict restrictions above your child is then, in my mind, relatively free to enjoy the social network as it is meant to be enjoyed.
There are a few more restrictions that I would add in the “Things Others Share” privacy options. The first one being “Photos and videos you’re tagged in”
If you click the “edit settings” button you receive an explanation and an option to filter. For children under 16 I would recommend setting this to friends only as once people have your child’s name and school name then they can more easily be targeted inappropriately.
I would also recommend the setting of “disabled” on the “friends can check me in to places” option as that will mean that friends of your child cannot give away their location in real time.
For the remainder of these options I believe that the default settings are restrictive enough and if restricted any further may damage the spirit of socialising, however, if you do have a different opinion and it is convincing then I will update the post retrospectively.
Facebook (and the internet in general) and it’s privacy settings is not an easy topic to address and to agree on with your children but there are now plenty of resources out on the net to help parents and children alike to get educated and to understand the kinds of risks that exist as well as the best way to stay safe online and at the same time enjoy all of the benefits of the internet.
If you need more information on child internet safety then please take a look at www.superviseandprotect.com as well as sites such as Thinkuknow’s social networking advice page.
In addition you should read through the Facebook parents section of their site. Best of all is to get onto Facebook yourself, open an account and get socialising with your friends on there in order to understand how it works and to spot the potential risks. Your kids will then not be able to tell you that you do not know what you are talking about.
