Facebook started to lose the cool crowd when the social media site created a photo age restriction. Today, that restriction has been lifted - get ready for a whole lot of teen pictures! Here are the details.

Facebook Lifts Age Restrictions

Originally, teens creating Facebook pages were not permitted to share photos publicly. A barrier was automatically placed on any photos that teens posted, so that only the friends of those users could view photos. Now, those photo restrictions are gone.

Any person under the age of 18 can now post photos publicly to Facebook. The social network has decided not to play nanny, and to let teens manually control viewer settings. Aside from a number of complaints from parents, the social network is causing other rifts with this news.

A Possible Problem

The number one issue with allowing teens to post public photographs is child pornography. Parents are also calling out the social network for not protecting children. But, should this really be the job of Facebook? Or, should parents be protecting teens? That's the debate that's currently happening in the social media world.

Why did Facebook decide to lift this restriction? It's all about the numbers. The social network was losing lots of teen users to other, less restrictive, social options. This is a large market that Facebook couldn't afford to let go (and a huge market for Facebook advertisers to target!). This is why Facebook has lifted the photo restrictions.

How to Manually Control Photos

If you have a child with a Facebook account, know that they probably know how to change photo settings better than most. But, it never hurts to know how to change these settings yourself - just in case your teen decides to go public with some risque photos.

Simply visit a user profile, look at a photo, and choose the setting option next to the photo. From there, you can choose who to share the photo with. Most teens won't share all photos publicly, but those that do should be monitored - if not by Facebook, by parents.

Some Good Too

The elimination of the Facebook photo restriction isn't all bad, though. Some teens have been trying to get various charitable, and other, efforts off the ground, and this sometimes calls for sharing photos. Now that Facebook has lifted the restriction, those photos will be easier to pass around, and this means that we may see some new teen-owned businesses popping up soon.

Where do you stand on this issue? Should teens be allowed to share photos with the public? Should Facebook be controlling photo settings? Or, has Facebook made the right choice here? Is this just a marketing ploy? Let us know what you think below.

For the time being, though, the restriction remains lifted, and teens that use Facebook are now free to share photos as they like - whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen. Either way, parents need to check in on recently posted photos to avoid a bigger problem!