How to Use Facebook: A Beginner’s Guide (and Privacy Settings)

Facebook is where a lot of Australian family life happens now. The grandchildren’s photos, the local community notices, the sports club updates, the quiet message from a cousin overseas. If you have been putting off joining, or you joined years ago and never quite got the hang of it, this guide walks you through it slowly. One thing to have ready before you start is an email address. If you don’t have one yet, our guide to setting up Gmail sorts that out first.

We will cover the everyday basics first, then spend real time on the privacy settings, because that is the part most people skip and later wish they hadn’t. None of it is hard. You just need someone to point at the right buttons, and that is what this is.

What Facebook is actually for

At its heart, Facebook is a noticeboard for people you know. Your friends and family share photos, news and the odd thought, and you see it all in one place called the News Feed. You can react to things, leave a comment, or send a private message. That is really all it is. The rest is just buttons.

You can use it on a computer through a web browser, or on a phone or tablet through the Facebook app. The app is what most people end up using day to day. The layout looks slightly different between the two, but the ideas are the same, and we will point out where they differ.

Getting started with the basics

Your profile picture and name

Your profile is your page. A clear photo of your face helps friends recognise you and accept your requests, and it helps you avoid looking like one of the empty fake accounts. Use your real name. Tap your picture or name at the top to see your profile the way others see it.

The News Feed

This is the main screen, the long scrolling list of posts from your friends and any pages you follow. Drag your finger up the screen, or use the mouse wheel, to see more. You will not run out. Do not feel you have to read all of it. Dip in when you like and close it when you are done.

Friend requests

You connect with people by sending or accepting a friend request. When someone wants to connect, you get a notification, and you can Confirm or Delete. Here is the golden rule: only accept people you actually know. A request from a stranger, or a second request from someone you are already friends with, is usually not what it seems. More on that below.

Liking, commenting and sharing

Under every post there are a few small buttons. Like lets you tap a little thumbs up to show you saw it and enjoyed it. Comment lets you type a reply that others can see. Share puts that post onto your own page. Liking a grandchild’s photo takes one tap and means a lot, so start there.

Messenger, for private messages

A comment is public. A message is private, just between you and the person, a bit like a text. On the phone this lives in a separate app called Messenger. It is handy for a quick note or a photo you do not want on the open page. If you would like to bring the whole family into one place, our guide to setting up a family group chat walks through it.

Setting up your privacy, the part that matters most

By default, some of what you post can be seen by anyone, not just your friends. That is worth fixing before you get going. The good news is it takes about five minutes, and once it is done you rarely touch it again.

First, find your settings. On a computer, click your profile picture in the top right, then Settings and privacy, then Settings. On the phone app, tap the menu (three lines, usually bottom right or top right), then Settings and privacy, then Settings. From here the same options are available on both.

1. Run Privacy Checkup first

Facebook has a friendly guided tool called Privacy Checkup that walks you through the main choices with plain questions. Look for it under Settings and privacy. It covers who can see what you share, how to keep your account secure, and how people can find you. If you only do one thing, do this. It holds your hand through the rest.

2. Set who can see your future posts

This is the single most useful setting. In Settings, find Privacy, then “Who can see your future posts”. Change it to Friends. Now anything you write from here on is seen only by people you have accepted, not the whole internet. You can still change any single post when you write it by tapping the little audience button next to the Post button.

3. Tidy up your past posts

If you have been on Facebook a while, some older posts may still be public. In the same Privacy section there is an option to limit past posts, sometimes called “Limit who can see past posts”. One tap changes them all to Friends. It is a nice clean slate.

4. Decide who can see your friends list

Your list of friends can be public unless you say otherwise. Scammers use it to work out who to impersonate. In Privacy, find “Who can see your friends list” and set it to Friends, or even Only me. Nobody else needs to see who you know.

5. Turn on two-factor authentication

This one protects your whole account. Two-factor authentication means that if someone tries to log in as you from a strange device, Facebook sends a code to your phone that they will not have. You find it under Settings, then Accounts Centre, then Password and security, then Two-factor authentication. Choose the text message option to keep it simple. Our guide on two-factor authentication walks through it step by step. It is the best five minutes you will spend on Facebook.

Staying safe from the common Facebook scams

Facebook is mostly friendly, but a few scams turn up often enough that it helps to recognise them. None of them work if you slow down for a moment.

The most common one right now is the cloned account. You get a friend request from someone you are already friends with. It looks like them, same photo, same name. It is a scammer who copied their public profile, and once you accept, they start asking for money or spreading a dodgy link. If you get a second request from an existing friend, phone the real person and ask. Setting your friends list to private, as above, makes you a harder target.

The other two to watch for are buying and selling traps on Facebook Marketplace, and the slow build of a romance scam through friendly messages. We have full plain-English guides to both: Facebook Marketplace scams in Australia and romance scams and how to spot them. If you ever want a family member to help you sanity check, our scam safety checklist is made for exactly that.

If something goes wrong

If you ever lose access to your account, or a friend tells you that you seem to be posting strange things, do not panic. This is common and it can be fixed. Our step-by-step guide to recovering a hacked Facebook account walks you through it. If you have been caught by a scam, you can report it to Scamwatch at scamwatch.gov.au. And if you would like to talk it through with someone, IDCARE offers free, confidential support to people in Australia. You can call them on 1800 595 160.