Most people know the story by now. What started out as a morally questionable (but technically accomplished) mechanism for rating female college students’ pictures evolved into the flagship platform of a planet-spanning multi-billion-dollar empire – making a household name of its creator and adding an entirely new dimension to the 21st-century concept of ‘friendship’.
Facebook’s slightly questionable beginnings may seem a lifetime ago now, but similar concerns and controversies have continued to haunt the platform even during its phenomenal growth. Our online safety guide to the social media titan alerts trusted adults to potential issues around inappropriate content, oversharing and contact from strangers.
An Ofcom study last year revealed that around one in three (30%) of 12–15-year-olds had received a friend request on social media from someone who they didn’t actually know. Facebook, of course, is far from exempt from such behaviours – and younger users in particular can accidentally exacerbate the problem by over-sharing personal information. Contact from strangers is far from the only concern that many parents and carers have over their child becoming a Facebook user, however. From FOMO and trolling to young people accidentally damaging their future prospects, our #WakeUpWednesday guide this week draws attention to other aspects of the social networking giant that trusted adults ought to be aware of.
