On October 17, 2013, The New York Times announced that Facebook shifts its rules on privacy for teenagers. Apparently Facebook has loosened its privacy rules for teenage Facebook users to protect them from bullies and sexual predators. Facebook now allows the teenagers to post status updates, videos and images that can be seen by anyone despite the person is their friends or some stranger.
Facebook claims that this change will give the teenagers a better choice and big money at stake for the social network and its advertisers. Seemingly, it is also a huge advantage for the marketers to reach their target audience when they have more information about those users.
“It’s all about monetization and being where the public dialogue is,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a group that lobbies against marketing to children. “To the extent that Facebook encourages people to put everything out there, it’s incredibly attractive to Facebook’s advertisers.”
However the interactions between the advertisers now includes the youths as well which they could not care less and learn how these can be full of risks. Youths are not aware of the consequences putting all the information on the internet. Parents too need to help their children and navigate the wild online world that holds both promises and risks.
In my opinion, yes parents must play an important role in guiding their children to use social media especially when updating their whereabouts and images. Each teenage Facebook users should be provided with guidelines in order for them to release only necessary information because nowadays there are too many cases, crime cases that involve the youth. Inappropriate images make them an easy target, updating their whereabouts makes it easier for the criminals to reach them. Parents should monitor their children’s daily updates on Facebook as well as other social media only for safety reasons.
As for the youth or teenagers, they should have the rights to share their information with whomever they want. Nevertheless, without any restrictions from Facebook, they will post and put anything they want which may lead to any bullies or sexual predators. Well, these teenagers are still young that they are not alert of the real wild online world. With proper guidelines and regulations for the teenage Facebook users, this can actually help to prevent from any unwanted events such as fake profiles.
Illegal online dating, inappropriate images could go viral and many more. Facebook can be blamed for any of the incidents, which will give them bad reviews and image. There are many risks and things could go wrong when any unnecessary information being shared freely. Hence I believe that these teenagers should not be given rules that are too loose for many safety purposes to avoid any unwanted events in our country. Facebook should concentrate more on the users privacy and safety rather than for the huge chunk of money at stake for the social network its advertisers and marketers.
Regards,
Tengku Nor Aimie
Article link : http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/facebook-shifts-its-rules-on-privacy-for-teenagers/?ref=socialmedia&_r=0
Assalamualaikum. i would like to share an article, a recent news about a 15 years old girl who was murdered by a guy/ friend that she met online. this is one of the example or possible case if facebook loosen its privacy settings for teenagers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2013/10/22/suspect-missing-girl-detained.aspx
we can't put total blame on the media though....perhaps we should encourage good manners in people first so they'll act more humanly online.
ReplyDeletegood manners = wise mind = no ridiculous online updates = better world.
I think self regulation and self control is important here. Many youths are getting more engaged and engrossed in their social media whether its Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and its slowly starting to get out of hand. Some of these youngsters aren't aware of the dangers the social media realm posses and leading them to be 'socially exposed' to the outside world. However, security options on these sites should be decently enforced while individuals can adjust tighter security options to their preference.
ReplyDeleteWell, i do think that the reason why Facebook did this was to expose teenagers to businesses. I will explain more later on. Now, i have class :)
ReplyDelete