Facebook pages now have a feature that prevents user posts from appearing publicly until they are reviewed by an admin.

This is another function page owners wished for and Facebook implemented as part of the latest overhaul of the pages product. It gives organizations more control over what appears on their pages and could help keep spam and inappropriate content off the wall.

From the “Edit Page” dashboard under “Manage Permissions,” page owners can select a new option titled, “Only show posts by [your page] and friend activity on your page until reviewed by an admin.” This hides posts made by other users until a page owner indicates “Allow on Timeline” from the new activity log.

This does not seem to affect posts in the “Friend Activity” section of a page, as users always have the ability to view posts that their friends have shared with them. It also does not seem to affect comments on page posts. The option only hides posts users make to the wall.

Pages that address more sensitive topics or that have had issues with spam will want to enable this feature. For pages with less frequent activity, this function might not even be necessary. On the other hand, pages that are very active with fan-to-fan discussions might not want to hide wall posts either so they don’t limit the amount or pace of interaction.