Privacy settings allow users to determine who can see their profile, or portions thereof, on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. They are powerful tools in helping to protect your teen's information, including blog entries, videos and pictures.
Most social networking sites offer a default privacy setting. Younger users are typically defaulted to private whereas adults are defaulted to public. The default setting helps protect users who may not fully understand the risks of sharing information online with people they don't know. On some sites, users who are changing their default setting from private to public are presented with safety messaging alerting them to the risks of making their profile public. This messaging helps them to make an informed decision.
In the case of Bebo, all users' profiles are defaulted to private with the ability to make public; however, Bebo recommends users under the age of 21 keep their profile private. If a user decides to make their profile public, they can determine both the minimum and maximum age of other users who can contact them. Bebo provides the ability to block other members from sending you mail messages, posting to your white board and commenting on your blog, quizzes, photos, profiles and polls.
If your teen is on a social network, make certain that they are aware of and utilize the site's privacy and communication settings to help create a positive and safer experience.
Watch this video from CBS on Myspace's Privacy Settings:
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Archana Shekar 12-19-2008 @ 6:28AM
But the private information should not be public. it may affect their life later.teens should never let their profile public until they are safe to protect themselves and know the peopl very well to whom they are sharing.for more information what to do and what not to do about the information visit www.8falcons.com.
Archana shekar
online safety advisor-www.8falcons.com
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G 9-06-2009 @ 4:53PM
Thanks for the tips. The video really helps too! Privacy is very important! I am a teen writer at RadicalParenting.com which is a parenting blog from the kid's perspective there are 60 teen and tween writers run by teen author, Vanessa Van Petten. We just posted a video of "How to set Privacy Settings in Social Networks" here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weM8rcAhAw8
and would love for you to check it out and tell us what you think or repost if you like it,
Cheers, thanks for checking it out!
G and the Teen Team
http://radicalparenting.com
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