Feeling the heat from the indignant masses who have been protesting the Facebook’s decision to contaminate its virgin collegiate domain with the abbreviated ramblings of high school students, Mark Zuckerberg finally broke the silence with a response:

Hey,
Facebook understands that some of you may be upset that high school and college students can now interact. We did this because a lot of people asked for it and we wanted to make it even easier for you to communicate with your friends. We realize that friendship is not restricted to a particular stage of school and we decided to stop dividing people based on what grade they were in.

One Bwogger realized today his 14 year old sister was interested in “Men.” Not boys, but “Men.” Sometimes, separate but equal really IS separate but equal. But then again, now Bwog won’t have as much trouble finding a date.

Hat tip to Bwog correspondent John Klopfer.

Full text of Facebook’s response after the jump.

Hey,

Facebook understands that some of you may be upset that high school and college students can now interact. We did this because a lot of people asked for it and we wanted to make it even easier for you to communicate with your friends. We realize that friendship is not restricted to a particular stage of school and we decided to stop dividing people based on what grade they were in.

This does not affect the security of Facebook. There are several measures in place to ensure that the high schoolers are affiliated with the school that they actually attend. First, they must either register with a school email address or be invited to join by a friend at their school. Second, anyone at a high school can report someone else that does not attend their school. Facebook monitors these reports very closely to make sure that there is no abuse of the site.

It’s important to remember that you are ultimately the person in control of what information you choose to share, and who sees that information.. The only people who can see your profile are still those who are your friends, go to your school, or have been friended by you. If you want to control who can find you in searches and see your profile, we encourage you to adjust your My Privacy Settings.

As added privacy control, Facebook has introduced a “Limited Profile” feature (available on the My Privacy page) that allows you to limit the profile information that selected people see. As an example, you can hide your photos and contact information from particular people. Facebook helps you share information with your friends and helps you control who sees that information through the settings on the My Privacy page.

You might experience difficulty searching for your high school friends because we do not provide a list of high schools for global search. Don’t worry though, this inconvenience is just temporary. In a few weeks, Facebook is going to introduce a revamped search tool that will make it easier than before to find your friends. In the interim, bear with us. I assure you that it will be worth the wait.

Please do not respond to this message as this email account is not monitored. If you would like to ask any additional questions, please contact info@facebook.com.

Thanks for using Facebook!