Until now, Facebook said, teens aged 13 to 17 joining the service defaulted to being able to share information -- status updates, photos, videos, and the like -- with anybody in their extended network including friends and "friends of friends." But in a bid, perhaps, to assuage concerned parents, the giant social network is ratcheting the default for new users back to just "friends."
Note: To be sure, Facebook will allow those teens to change their privacy settings to anything they want.
Other social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Last.fm don't prevent teens from posting publicly. However, if someone under 18 wanted to bypass the setting on Facebook before today, they could easily lie about their age when signing up for an account. Children under 13 are not officially allowed to sign up for a Facebook account, though they can skirt the rules in the same way. When someone underage does sign up for an account, Facebook assumes they have the permission of at least one guardian but does not verify it in any way.
Privacy, or the lack of privacy, has long been a touchy subject for Facebook. Users often bash the social network for its ever-changing and often complicated privacy settings. And despite the impression that teens are carefree with their online identities, a recent report showed that they are definitely concerned about their privacy on Facebook.
