Over 70 percent of all teens (12 to 17) have at least one social networking profile – Facebook being the world’s largest social network. Although kids under 13 aren’t technically allowed on Facebook, 7.5 million kids under 13 have an account. Because Facebook is a huge part of the life of a tween or teen, you need to talk to your kids about their privacy settings. Encourage your kids to be more selective about the information they share on Facebook.

The following privacy settings will protect your tween or teen from the prying eyes of strangers and potential cyberbullies:

1. Set Default Privacy to “Friends” or “Custom” – Under “privacy settings” on Facebook, scroll down to “Control Your Default Privacy.” Here, your teen has the option of choosing the default audience for all of their posts:

• Public – Gives access to everyone on Facebook and the Internet
• Friends – Only friends can read their posts
• Custom – Only certain groups of friends can see posts. Your tween or teen can also hide posts from certain friends or groups of people.

If your teen is posting status updates, photos, and other content that they’d rather keep private from certain friends (like school acquaintances, not close friends), they should select “Custom.” A tween or teen should never allow the general public to have access to their posts.

2. Only Allow Friends to Connect with Your Teen – On the “privacy settings” page, scroll down to “How you connect.” Click on “Edit settings,” and make the following changes:

• Who can find your teen’s profile? – As a default setting, anyone on Facebook can search for another person by looking up his or her name or contact information. To keep strangers from finding and viewing your child’s profile, change this setting to “Friends” or “Friends of friends.”

• Who’s allowed to send friend requests? – Again, the default setting is “Everyone.” Becasue you probably don’t want strange people sending a friend request to your child, change this setting to “Friends of friends.”

• Who can send your teen Facebook messages? – Pay attention to this very important privacy setting. The default setting is “Everyone,” but your child should only allow “Friends” to send them messages. It can be dangerous if everyone – such as a sexual predator – is allowed to send your tween or teen private messages on Facebook.

• On your teen’s profile page, who can see Wall posts that others make? – For privacy purposes, your teen should only allow friends (or close friends) to see Wall posts that others write on their wall. Allowing the general public to see this information can provide personal information they can use for dangerous purposes.

3. Approve Tags Before They’re Published – Facebook allows users to approve tagged posts and photos before they’re published. Your teen needs to turn on “profile review” and “tag review.” You can find this option under “privacy settings” and “How tags work.” Reviewing tags before they’re published gives your teen control over what photos and posts appear on their profile.

4. Disable Public Search – If you don’t want your child’s Facebook profile to appear in Google or another search engine, you have to disable public search. To do this, go to “privacy settings.” Find “Apps and websites” and click on “Edit settings” next to it. On the next page, find “Edit settings” next to “Public search.” When the public search page pops up, make sure that the “Enable public search” box is not checked.

5. Prevent People from Bringing Your Teen’s Info into Apps They Use – Did you know that Facebook users who see your child’s info can bring it with them when they use apps? This information includes your teen’s birthday, bio, family and relationships, religious and political views, status updates, their photos and videos, their notes, current location, and more.

Beacuse you do not want apps or external websites to access any of this information, go to “privacy settings,” find where it says “Apps and websites,” and click on “Edit settings.” On the next page, find “How people bring your info to apps they use” and “Edit settings.” Make sure that EVERY box is unchecked. Save changes when finished.

AUTHOR OVERVIEW

Lisa Shaw Senior Director, Child Online Safety and Protection at SpectorSoft

What do five kids ranging in age from kindergarten to high school, a Harvard MBA and years of protecting kids online get you? It gets you Lisa Shaw, COO of her very busy household, and a Senior Director at SpectorSoft, the number one leader in monitoring and protecting your kids online. She's an expert on the technology and trends that you need to arm yourself with to be the best parent you can be in today’s digital world.

Tags: facebook, parenting tips, social media, teens online