Sharing choices: audience and access

Sharing has two questions

A share button can look tiny while making a big decision. Before sharing a piece of work, ask who needs access and what they need to do. Reading is different from editing. We will use fictional names and a pretend poster, without opening anyone else's files or changing real permissions.

Give the needed permission

Mira needs to read the poster. Ari needs to revise its words. Theo is not part of this task. In our model, Mira gets view access, Ari gets edit access and Theo gets none. Giving every person edit access would not solve a missing instruction. It would only give more permission than the task needs.

A forwarded link can travel

A link available to anyone who receives it can travel beyond your intended audience when forwarded. Choosing specific people is different. Actual services have different controls, and other permissions may already exist. Ask a trusted adult to review the content, audience and access together before sharing personal material.

Stopping access is not time travel

Suppose Mira was allowed to keep a screenshot before her access was removed. Disabling the original permission does not reach backward and erase that separate screenshot. Our fictional owner still has the original too. Sharing is easier to expand than to undo completely, so think about the audience before sending.

Pause: choose for a new task

Try a fresh example. One tutor needs to read an invented project description, not change it. Choice A lets anyone with the link edit. Choice B gives only the selected tutor view access. Pause and choose. Then ask whether removing that access later would automatically erase a permitted screenshot made earlier.

Check the audience and the copy

Choice B fits this task: one selected tutor can view. Removing that access later does not automatically delete the tutor's earlier screenshot. A real file may also have other links or inherited permissions, so checking just one switch is not always the whole job. Ask the authorized owner or a trusted adult to help.

Audience and permission are separate

Fun fact: a file can have only one invited reader and still give that reader more permission than intended. Audience size and permission level are separate questions. One does not replace the other. Our poster does not need a crowd, and a person reading a sentence does not automatically need to rewrite it.

Continue to the sharing worksheet

Continue to the worksheet below and work through the three fictional people. Explain who can read, who can edit and who should have no access for this task. Then try Understand What Stopping a Share Does. Keep real names, photographs, passwords and personal locations out of these practice examples.