What parents need to know about Facebook — Marketplace scams, friend requests from strangers, Groups, cloned accounts, and the settings that keep a teenager's profile private.
Official age
13+
We recommend
15+
Developer
Meta Platforms, Inc.
Risks
5
Facebook is Meta's original social network, combining profiles, a personalised feed, Groups, Marketplace, events, and live video. Fewer teenagers now use it as their main social network, but many still have accounts for Marketplace, local groups, events, and keeping in touch with family. Its audience skews older than TikTok or Snapchat, which changes the risks: alongside contact from strangers, families need to think about scams, cloned relative accounts, and how much family life is shared publicly.
Teenagers rarely treat Facebook as their primary social space, but they use it in practical ways: buying and selling on Marketplace (trainers, gaming gear, concert tickets, and — for older teens — first cars), joining Groups around hobbies, fandoms, or their local area, finding events, and staying in touch with parents, grandparents, and extended family. Because it links closely with Messenger and Instagram, a Facebook account often exists mainly to unlock those other services, and it may sit half-forgotten with old posts and loose privacy settings while your child's attention is elsewhere.
Who can see your posts
Location: In the app's menu under Settings & Privacy > Settings (audience and visibility)
Set to: Friends
Sets the default audience for everything your child posts. 'Friends' keeps posts away from strangers; check old posts too, as earlier content may still be public. Facebook applies more private defaults to teen accounts, but it is worth confirming together rather than assuming.
Who can send you friend requests
Location: In the app's menu under Settings & Privacy > Settings (how people can find and contact you)
Set to: Friends of friends
Cuts down cold friend requests from complete strangers, which is the most common way unwanted adults make first contact on Facebook. It does not stop requests from cloned accounts of people your child knows, so pair it with a conversation about checking before accepting.
Profile and tag review
Location: In the app's menu under Settings & Privacy > Settings (profile and tagging)
Set to: On
Lets your child approve posts and photos they are tagged in before they appear on their profile. This gives them control over what friends — and well-meaning relatives — attach to their name.
Search engine visibility
Location: In the app's menu under Settings & Privacy > Settings (how people can find and contact you)
Set to: Off (do not allow search engines to link to the profile)
Stops your child's profile appearing in Google and other search results, which reduces how easily a stranger can find them from their name alone.
Sit down together and work through Facebook's privacy checkup, setting posts to Friends and restricting who can find and contact them
Time: 15 minutes
Agree Marketplace ground rules before any buying or selling: meet in busy public places with an adult, never pay by bank transfer to a stranger, and treat bargain prices with suspicion
Time: 10 minutes
Talk about friend requests — accept only people they actually know, and check with the real person (off Facebook) if a request arrives from someone they are already friends with, as cloned accounts are common
Time: 10 minutes
Review the Groups they have joined together, and talk about how public group posts can be seen by every member, not just friends
Time: 10 minutes
Explore Meta's family supervision tools to see whether they suit your family's approach
Time: 10 minutes
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
Myth: Facebook is just for older people now, so there's nothing to worry about.
Fact: Teenagers still use Marketplace, Groups, and events even if they never post — and the older audience creates its own risks: cloned relative accounts, romance and money scams reaching the family, and parents oversharing children's photos and routines. A dormant, badly-configured teen account is a risk in itself.
Myth: Marketplace is safe because it's part of Facebook.
Fact: Marketplace listings are not vetted, and payments made by bank transfer to a stranger have little protection and are rarely recoverable. Treat every listing as a deal with an unknown stranger: public meeting places, no transfers in advance, and healthy suspicion of any price that looks too good.
Myth: A private profile means my child's information is hidden.
Fact: A 'Friends' setting covers their own posts, but profile and cover photos are usually visible to anyone, posts in public Groups can be seen by every member, and anything friends or relatives tag them in follows the poster's settings, not theirs. Tag review and a check of old public posts close most of these gaps.
Below Facebook's minimum age of 13, so no account. The practical issue at this age is the shared family tablet or a parent's phone with Facebook logged in — a curious child can scroll Marketplace, watch videos, or reply to messages as you. Log out or lock the app, and start talking about why some sites have age limits.
Still below the minimum age until 13, and there is little social pressure to join early — their friends are elsewhere. If they open an account at 13, do it together: real date of birth so teen protections apply, posts set to Friends, tag review on, and friend requests limited to friends of friends. Agree that Marketplace waits until you have had the scams conversation.
This is when Marketplace becomes genuinely useful — and when scam awareness matters most. Rehearse the specific plays: bank-transfer requests, deposits to hold items, overpayment refunds, and cloned accounts of people they know. Agree that in-person meetings happen in busy public places with an adult, and keep an eye on which Groups they join, since public group posts are visible to every member.
Supervision gives way to habits. The conversations that count now are financial — Marketplace fraud when buying a first car, fake job offers arriving by message, and any request to move someone else's money through their account, which can be money laundering. It is also the moment to review what their profile shows publicly before employers and universities start looking.