Facebook's 'Lifestage' App for Teens Alarms Internet Safety Experts
App developer Michael Sayman created the app to make a platform that will unite teenagers who go to the same school.
Facebook's newly-launched app for teenagers, tagged as Lifestage, has already gotten a lot of flak from web security officers and information technology experts since its introduction barely a week ago.
The experts' main concern is this: anyone can sign up as a high schooler and use his or her account to get valuable information from the account of real high schoolers.
Meet the app maker
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The emerging social network was created by Michael Sayman, Facebook's 19-year-old software engineer.
Sayman developed the app to make a platform that will unite teenagers who go to the same school. Lifestage has an interface similar to that of Snapchat, where users can share videos and photos with their peers.
The young mobile application entrepreneur was discovered by Facebook after one of his creations, 4 Snaps, reached 2 million users.
Privacy issues
A report says web authorities found out that all of the users' updates and posts have no restrictions, thus, making their school activities and itineraries, including their personal information open to the public's eyes.
The app, however, does not allow users who are already 21 years old and above to view other user profiles. Older users can only see their own profiles, along with the photos and videos they have stored there. The reason behind this is because Lifestage is created specifically for teens.
However, this is just some minor technical detail that can be tweaked by anyone so they can view other user profiles.
According to the app's disclaimer, the information, videos, and photos shared by users are "always public and viewable by everyone, inside and outside your (the) school". It also warned that the app cannot make verifications regarding the users' attendance to schools created under the app.
Unlike Facebook, Lifestages does not have a messaging function. But users have the option to put their Snapchat and Instagram accounts on their profiles. This poses further safety and security threats to the young users.
Almost like Facebook
Also from the samereport, Sayman shares that the aim of Lifestage is patterned after Facebook's earlier goal, which is to just allow users to share all the things that he or she likes and everything that makes up who he or she is.
Sayman and the Facebook team have seen an opportunity in creating another platform that will cater to all of generation Z's interests.
Lifestage's soft launching
The social media giant quietly launched Lifestage in the United States last week. Sayman then announced the launch on his Facebook account by introducing its features. The post has already received 130 shares and close to 1,900 likes from Facebook users all over the world.
