Local

Fayette County challenges Facebook's teen user policy

FAYETTE COUNTY, Ga. — Fayette County just passed a resolution asking social media giant Facebook to reverse its decision to allow teens to opt out of privacy settings and post more publicly.

"I said, 'what a horrible thing to do to take away the privacy standards and allow strangers to come in and peer into the lives of your children,'" said Fayette County Commission Chairman Steve Brown.

Facebook recently announced the changes that would allow teens 13 to 17 to post status updates, videos and photographs so anyone can see them. It's part of Facebook's efforts to attract and keep more teen users.

But Brown believes these changes open up the teens to potential dangers from strangers.

The resolution states: "The Board of Commissioners of Fayette County does hereby formally request that Facebook withdraw any plans to expose our teenagers to serious threats on the Internet in an attempt to increase profits by leaving our young people dangerously exposed in order to attract more advertising."

"I'm one of those people who say, 'I don't care how big Facebook is,'" said Brown. "I don't care if they are a multi-billion dollar company with 1.2 billion users, somebody needs to call them on it."

Brown said the Atlanta Regional Commission, of which he is a board member, stated it would also look at passing a similar resolution. The ARC represents 10 metro Atlanta counties.