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Should there Be Regulations on Social Media Privacy for Juveniles

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In recent years, the privacy issues on social media have aroused controversial debates. It was argued by Albarran that people are losing control over their personal privacy, given the rapid boom of social sharing (146). No matter what viewpoint one holds towards secrecy, it is undeniable that the intrusion of social media privacy has become so intense that should no one ignore the possible consequences: Users’ information is constantly exploited for commercial use, while privacy loopholes on social networking sites might also intrigue many safety issues, internet fraud, for instance. Youngsters, aged from 13 to 19, are arguably the biggest prey of the struggle of social media confidentiality, for they have merely no choices, but to live …show more content…

In addition, safety awareness is low among teenagers. It is indicated by the Pew survey that only half of teenage respondents would keep their Facebook profiles private, while less than 10% claimed that they are highly concern about third-party access to their data (Madden et al.). This provides concrete evidence that youngsters underestimated the consequences and the importance of protecting their privacy.

Under no circumstances should there be tolerance for companies to monetize teenage privacy. Personal information should not be valued and put into business use without users’ consents. It is discovered that social media agencies are often motivated by business marketers to publicize user’s information in exchange of financial returns (Albarran 161). It is not hard to notice from the recent moves of social networking sites that teenagers have become the main targeted group of advertisers as a large profitable sector. In 2013, Facebook had loosened its’ privacy control over teenagers aged from 13 to 17, underage users were then permitted to post updates publicly as well as activating the “follow” function, indicating their information would be reached by third-parties unnoticeably and easily (Smith). Soon it received public skepticism that such amendments were catered for easier data mining for information agencies (Smith). It is also unacceptable that not only are advertisers taking advantage of teenage privacy loopholes, but they also conduct data

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