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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How Facebook works
Facebook is a social networking app owned by Meta which lets users connect by sharing photos, status updates, comments and videos. Many businesses also have their own Facebook pages to promote their brand.
Minimum age requirements
Users must be 13 to use Facebook. However, it does not have any rigorous age verification methods.
For account holders under 16, the default setting is ‘Private’. You should supervise your child as they create their account, to ensure that they enter the correct age and receive safety settings.
Features
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Facebook allows users to ‘Check in’ online by tagging themselves in specific locations.
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This is the livestreaming feature attached to Facebook. Users can make and share videos in real time. Account privacy settings will determine who can view a user’s live content.
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Registered users can create adverts to buy and sell items across the platform, both locally and nationally.
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A set of parental controls that lets you monitor and manage your child’s Facebook usage.
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Individual users can come together to form a Facebook group. Groups can be public, private or secret.
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This is a stand-alone chatting app which is part of Facebook. For more information on the Messenger app, refer to the Messenger app guide.
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These are short videos containing music, audio and text overlays. They are shared directly to ‘Friends’ on their ‘News feed’ or to other users in a dedicated ‘Reels’ section of the app.
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This allows Groups and Events ‘admins’ to create a space for up to 50 people to video chat together.
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A feature that lets users share content on their profiles. Stories disappear after 24 hours.
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When a user ‘Tags’ someone on Facebook, it creates a link to their profile. A user can tag someone in a photo, or in a status update.
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This is a user’s history on Facebook. It keeps all of their activity, including updates, photos and public messages, in one place.
What Facebook offers
Facebook lets users connect with their friends and family even when they are not physically in the same location. Users can also find an online community by following Facebook pages based around their interests and then engaging in discussion around these hobbies.
Managing risks
Oversharing
Users can share photos, status updates, live locations and tag their friends and family in their photos. While this can help maintain connections with friends and family who may live far away, it may result in some young people oversharing personal information and documenting all aspects of their lives online.
Talk with your child about what information they would share with friends and strangers offline to compare it to what they might share on Facebook. Discuss what information is and isn’t okay to share online.
Contact with harmful strangers
Facebook is vast, so your child may come into contact with users they don’t know if safety settings haven’t been customised. These users could use inappropriate language or message your child with harmful intentions.
These steps can help protect your child from other users.
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In the Facebook settings, set your child’s profile to private to limit who can contact them or see their posts.
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Regularly review your child’s Friend List to flag anyone they might only know online.
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Teach your child how to block and report to help them end contact with anyone making them uncomfortable.
Upsetting content
Your child might see posts and pages intended for adults, including posts based around sensitive issues. The following advice can help.
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Facebook lets you change content preferences to limit sensitive content in your child’s feed.
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Encourage your child to follow positive pages and groups, so their feed features uplifting posts rather than negative ones. Clicking ‘Not interested’ on upsetting posts can also help curate a positive feed.
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Teach your child how to block and report pages or users that share upsetting content to help make the platform safer.
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Let your child know they can come to you for support if they see anything that makes them upset or angry online. Teach them that not everything they see online is true. Help them learn to identify misinformation or AI-generated media.
Settings to protect your child
If your child uses Facebook, these settings can help them stay safer.
Set up Family Centre
On Facebook, select profile icon and go to ‘Settings & Privacy’.
- Select ‘Settings’.
- Select ‘Family Centre’.
- Select ‘Supervision’ and then ‘Create invitation’.
- Ask your child to accept the invite.
- Manage supervision settings through the Family Centre dashboard.
Make an account private
On Facebook, select your profile icon and go to ‘Settings & Privacy’.
- Select ‘Settings’.
- Select 'Default audience settings’.
Choose ‘Friends’ or select ‘Custom’ if you would like to customise who can see your child’s profile.
Review reporting and blocking tools
Report a user or group
- Go to the profile of the account or group.
- Select the 3 dots under the cover photo and choose ‘Report profile’.
- Select your reason for reporting from the list of reasons provided and select ‘Submit’.
Report content
- Find the content you wish to report and select the 3-dots icon.
- Select ‘Report post/photo’.
- Choose the reason for reporting.
- Select ‘Done’ to finish the report.
Report or hide a comment
- Go to the comment you wish to report and select the 3-dots icon.
- Select ‘Report comment’ or ‘Hide comment’ as appropriate.
- Select your reason for reporting from the listed options and select ‘Submit’.
Block a user
- Go to the profile of the account you wish to block.
- Select the 3-dots icon under the cover photo and choose ‘Block’.
- Choose ‘Confirm’ to submit.