Every now and again, someone will wander onto your parish’s Facebook page, disparaging the Church or people of faith more generally. Luckily you can mute them, but if you’re looking for an easier way to intercept them before they cause trouble, consider using Facebook’s profanity filter. This setting is buried inside of your parish’s Facebook page settings. Just click on “settings” on the upper righthand corner of your page, then scroll down until you see “profanity filter.” (Click on the image below for a better view.)
The profanity filter is set to “off” by default, but you can turn it on to “medium” or “strong.” Strong will offer you the most protection, regularly stopping users from posting words or phrases that Facebook has deemed vulgar or offensive. For a more moderate approach, the medium setting will ensure that typical curse words won’t be posted to your page, but it won’t be overly aggressive in policing users’ language.
While the Internet can be a little like the Wild West in terms of language usage, remember that your Facebook page is the digital doorway to your parish community. If you wouldn’t allow vulgar language in your parish office, make sure you’re properly policing your Facebook page. Keep the level of discourse civil, and you’ll find your online community will flourish. Just begin using Facebook’s profanity filter!
