A guide for families with key information about ‘Facebook’, including the age rating, key terminology, risks and instructions for enabling parental controls and safety settings.
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Facebook is a popular social networking app which lets you connect with others by sharing photos, status updates, comments and videos.
The app allows users to reconnect with old friends, keep updated with current ones and make new connections. Facebook is currently estimated to have over 2.93 billion active users worldwide. Whilst Facebook was originally established to keep friends in contact, many businesses now have their own Facebook pages where they can promote their brand, and the establishment of ‘Facebook Marketplace’ has meant users can also buy and sell goods through the platform.
Facebook now sits alongside Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger under the parent company Meta. Meta replaces Facebook as the leading company/brand in this group, and the Meta branding is likely to become increasingly visible on all of these apps.
Official age rating
The minimum age for Facebook users is 13, however it does not have any rigorous age verification methods.
For account holders under 16, the default setting is ‘Private’. All other accounts default to a public setting, where content can be viewed by any other users on the platform. Setting an account to private is recommended.
Find out more about age ratings in our ‘A parent and carer’s guide to age ratings of apps and games’.
How children and young people use the app
Facebook allows users to curate an online presence for themselves and share it with their social network of friends also on the platform. Their updates, from their images to their statuses and likes, can then be communicated directly with everyone they know. The ‘Like’ feature on the platform can be especially rewarding for children and young people as it is seen to signify approval from their friends or peers.
The Facebook app is easy to use to communicate and chat with friends either one-to-one or in group chats and with various media (for example, GIFs, photos, videos). It is also a useful place to follow brands or organisations and get updates with new information, releases or announcements. Although many young people see Facebook as more of an adult domain which their parents and carers are using - it does still have a lot of younger users.
Key features and terminology
Potential risks
Content
Some users of Facebook use it to document many aspects of their lives, often sharing personal information through their profile, photos, check ins and status updates. Help your child to think about what they share online and encourage them to think through whether they would share this information offline too. The notion of Facebook friends may lull some users into a false sense of security around the information they share. Explain the risks of what could happen if the information they have shared falls into the wrong hands.
The Facebook app allows users to share personal information with each other in a range of ways. Users can share photos, status updates, live locations and even tag their friends and family in their photos. Whilst this is a positive feature for those wanting to maintain connections with friends and family who may live far away, it can result in some users over-sharing their personal information and documenting all aspects of their lives online. Encourage your child to think about whether they would share their information with everyone they know in the offline world and whether it’s necessary to do so on Facebook.
Recent Facebook updates have meant that users can choose their audience for each new post they share. You can choose from ‘Public’, ‘Friends’, ‘Friends except’, ‘Specific friends’ and ‘Only me’. Encourage your child to think carefully about who they share their content with, making sure they are sharing with the right audience. Facebook users are also able to personalise the reels they see on the platform, choosing what they want to see more or less of. By using this option, it will inform the algorithm to select more or less content of a similar nature. Information on how to do this can be found in the ‘Managing content’ section of this guide.
Connecting with others
The Facebook platform is vast, so it is possible that your child may come into contact with users they do not know, if the appropriate privacy settings have not been put in place. Reinforce the understanding that Facebook friends should be people they know in the offline world and accepting a friend request from a stranger to boost their friendship count can be risky. As with other social networks, it is possible for users to set up fake accounts, pretending to be someone else. Encourage your child to question whether they really know the person who has sent a friend request before accepting. If your child has a ‘Public’ account setting, speak to them about the risks of connecting with strangers and explain the importance of not sharing personal or private information on their feed or within chats.
Some Facebook users harass others by targeting the content they share on their Facebook page. The comment function on Facebook can make users susceptible to harassment and abuse. It is helpful to talk to your child about how they should behave towards others online (and remind them of the impact that unkind or hurtful comments or posts can have on others) as well as how to report and block other users who behave inappropriately. Facebook has community standards that it expects users to adhere to.
User behaviour
If your child has their own Facebook account, it is important to speak to them about how they are using the app and what they are sharing. They also need to be aware of the risks of livestreaming using the ‘Facebook live’ function. Livestreaming can feel exciting and fun and in the moment for children and young people which can lead them to do things that they may later regret. Have a conversation with them to help them understand that they need to be careful with any content that they share or broadcast. Ensure your child knows it can be difficult to keep ownership of any content once it has been shared online, as content can easily be copied or recorded and reposted without their knowledge and can then become difficult to remove from the internet.
Facebook users should also know that their name, age, gender, profile picture and cover photo are all classed as ‘Public information’ and can be viewed by everyone on the platform. Encourage younger users to think carefully about the pictures they choose as their profile or cover photo, keeping in mind that it can be viewed by a high volume of people.
Design, data and costs
Facebook is a free app, which means it generates revenue from advertising. The company makes money by selling ad space in and next to a user’s feed. Meta has updated its targeted advertising policy on Facebook, meaning that adverts can only be targeted to users under 18 based on their age and location and not on their gender, interests or activity. Users can also manage their advert topic control within ‘Ad preferences’ in the settings menu. Talk to your child about how advertising works, including targeted advertising and work through the advertising settings within the ‘Settings and privacy’ menu to help manage the adverts shown.
Meta is launching Meta Verified for Facebook and Instagram, which is a paid-for subscription service which provides users with a blue badge to indicate the authenticity of the user. Young people may be attracted to having a blue badge on their profile, as this is typically conflated with popularity. Speak to your child about how subscriptions work and explain that it is a design tool used to encourage users to spend more money on the platform.
Users should be aware that Meta’s introduction of the ‘Meta Accounts Centre’ has introduced ‘cross-posting’ which is essentially sharing individual posts across Instagram and Facebook. This means that users are now able to post on both social media accounts at once. Users who have used the same email for both accounts have found that cross-sharing has been enabled by default. We recommend users unlink their accounts through the settings menu. Advice on how to do this is under the ‘Managing privacy’ section of this guide.
Tips for keeping your child safe online
Additional tips
We recommend having a conversation with your child about their digital footprint and the importance of being a good digital citizen. Encourage them to think about how they use the platform, and to be aware that once they share content online on apps like Facebook, that content is no longer under their control.
Meta has created a dedicated Teen privacy centre to help teen users manage their privacy on all Meta platforms.
Facebook has a dedicated portal for parents with tips and advice on using their social network.
Facebook has the option to ‘Unfollow’ and ‘Unfriend’ other users on the platform by hovering over either the ‘Follow’ or ‘Friend’ button and selecting the relevant option.
Users are able to link their accounts through Meta’s ‘Account Centre’ that manages the accounts of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Horizon.
Facebook also has a game function where users can compete and interact with their friends while playing online.