People can connect with friends, join ‘groups’ (places where people communicate with other users, usually about a shared interest) or follow an organisation’s ‘page’ (where organisations post information and communicate with other users). They can also send private messages using the Messenger app.
A user can create a story (a set of pictures and videos that last 24 hours). Each user has a ‘feed’ showing information shared by ‘friends’ (people who they are connected with), pages, groups and advertisers, that the app thinks the user will like. Users can also watch videos, livestream, game, shop and create events on the app.
Facebook profiles can be public or private. If a user’s account is set to private it means the user can select who will see the information they share.
Facebook defaults to some more private settings for accounts under 18. For example, their accounts are automatically set to ‘private’ and location sharing is turned off by default (however this can be changed).
Facebook does provide some parental oversight. Parents can set up ‘Supervision’ for their child’s Facebook and Messenger account, to see their friends and contacts, who they’ve chatted with and blocked, some of their privacy settings and how much time they spend on the app. Parents can also set breaks for their children, but they can’t see the contents of their children’s chats or searches.
Safety settings include the ability to control who can see what they share on Facebook, who can contact them and how much time they spend using the app. They can suppress some content (such as potential spam or sexually suggestive content). Users can create a pin for making payments and control how their information is shared with advertisers and search engines.
