The new changes to Facebook’s policies have caused some students to be concerned about their privacy.

Facebook has decided to relax its privacy rules for teenager’s 13 to 17 years old. The new settings now provide the options for teenagers to share photos, updates and comments with the general public on Facebook.This means strangers, and companies collecting data for advertisers or marketing companies will be able to see teenager’s posts.

“I have mixed feelings about the subject.” New Tech teacher Lora Alaniz said, “I think teenagers should have the option of making their own choices, but sometimes they don’t stop and think who’s going to see that later?”

A big concern is that teenagers often don’t think of the repercussions of posting whatever they want on social media site. Later when teenagers are considered for a future job their personal information on social media sites would be open to scrutiny by collages, employers and the general public.

In some cases if a teenager posts something inappropriate and an employer sees it, it may lead to termination because they are a reflection of that company.

“If teenagers want to be safe, they can make their profile private but otherwise it’s their own decision.” Senior Bryanna Longoria said. “Let them make their own mistakes. They can learn from them.”

Another concern was if Facebook was making these changes known to the public. In Alaniz’s opinion they did not.

“I don’t think they educate the public enough. They rely on people educating themselves,” she said.

Facebook makes so many privacy changes they fail to inform the general public of such changes that could potently make such a young age group vulnerable to online dangers.

New Tech senior Alyssa Gonzales believes it is a parent’s responsibility to educate their children about the dangers of social media use.

“It really comes down to the parents and whether they taught their kids about online dangers and how to act responsibly on the Internet,” she said.

Some teens feel confident in their ability to handle social media themselves.

“Part of parenting is encouraging children to live up to high expectations of trust and responsible behavior especially on the Internet,” Gonzalez said. “It’s also their responsibility to teach children how to have good judgment on whether something online is safe or unsafe.”

The new setting might help Facebook compete against other social networks, and having public data on teens will also help the company appeal to advertisers.

Facebook assumes that with teenager’s quick adoption of social networks such as Instagram and Twitter that they want to share everything and with as many people as possible.

“You all have moved onto a whole other level of communication… You don’t need all that extra stuff” Social Studies teacher Justin Sloane said.

Some students said Facebook making such a young age group so vulnerable just to compete with other social media networks might actually just backfire on them.

“That’s so selfish of them, basically sacrificing us. I don’t think its going to help anyways. We’re still not going back to Facebook.”  Longoria said.