As a marketer I really do appreciate Zuckerberg’s vision of making the world more open and more connected. But, as a parent I don’t like the idea of kids status updates being public. Up until Oct 16th when teens posted it defaulted to “friends of friends” with the option to change it. Then it went to a more narrow default option to just “friends”, which I was totally on board with, but now teens in that 13-17 age range will now have the option to share publicly. Although this is an option and I wouldn’t think a majority would actually select it this is important for parents to know that even if you think you’ve set those privacy settings to your liking, that option WILL be there.

Thankfully there will be a message that will warn you that you will be sharing with everyone, not just people you know.

In addition, “Follow” has been enabled for teens as well. As a marketer yes that’s great because if you share something “publicly” then it will show in your friends and FOLLOWERS news feeds. Works great if you have a message to share and want to be sure it gets to their wall. But, keep this in mind a Follower DOES NOT need to be a friend. So if some creepy man wants to follow your daughter he can, but will only see posts if they are public. So please have a talk with your teens about Social etiquette, and privacy settings.

And if it helps give an example of who might be creeping around….

This guy