Do: Report anything that makes you feel uncomfortable
When on the internet you can never be completely sure about whom you are talking to. Sally the eleven year old girl down the street who wants to hang out later may be that fifty-five year old man down the street who drives a big white van with no windows and offers you candy to get inside. If you ever come across someone who you think is talking to you inappropriately to you or just doesn’t seem right you should immediately walk away and find a trusted adult who can help sign you out of the site, and lead you to a safer site to use.
Do: Set any profiles you have to private
When on Facebook, Tumbler, or even the unused MySpace all your profiles should be set to private. This may seem like it defeats the purpose of social networking and meeting new people, but this will make it your decision whether or not you want certain people to see all of your personal information before you actually add them and become “friends”. Certain types of information that should not be posted to strangers are your address, your e-mail address, your phone number (cell or home) or what school you go to.
Do: Ask someone for help when you need it
If you are having trouble accessing the site you want, or have a question about what’s the best place to get your research information from ASK someone!!! Don’t just keep clicking buttons
Continuously, this won’t get you anywhere. In most cases if you’re at the library, at school or even at home someone around even a friend might be able to help you and answer all of your questions before you click the wrong button and download some kind of virus that costs hundreds of dollars to fix. (Trust me I’ve seen this happen to many innocent victims).
Do: Stay in public chat rooms
A lot of the safety problems start off when someone decides it would be a good idea to start a private chat with someone. This isn’t always bad if you want to have a private chat by all means go ahead, but do be careful of the safety risks you’re taking and how to avoid most of them.
Don’t: Post a picture of yourself or anyone you know
This goes along with some of the privacy issues. Although you don’t think a picture can mean or do much to put you in danger. This is not the case if someone wants to track you down they can use that picture along with the other information that probably doesn’t have privacy settings on it either. You don’t know what people want with your picture so either don’t put one up, or make sure only your friends can see it.
Don’t: Let anyone else have access your profiles and e-mail accounts
This is how cyber bullying starts. If you get in a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend or best friend then this could be their first form of revenge. If they have your passwords they can get into your accounts and release information (real of fake) that you did not want anyone to know. This could cause some serious problems in school, with families, and depending on the situation the law.
Don’t: Cyber bully anyone EVER, allow yourself to be bullied
Cyber bullying is wrong. It can hurt many people, and just like above cause problems. There are more than several instances where not just teens, but children have been so abused through this type of bullying that they attempt, or even succeed in suicide or self mutilation. Cyber bullying is a serious crime and should be taken as such.
Don’t: Fill out memberships or surveys on unsecure sites
We have all been on websites where there are no “pop-up” blockers or protection. When these “pop-ups” pop-up we see the words “You are the 1,000,000 visitor, you could win 2,000,000 now! Just click now!” or “Need a vacation? Enter to win a Caribbean Sea cruise”. Although all of these ads are really tempting 99.999% of them are SCAMS. These companies putting out the ads are mostly just looking for phone numbers and personal information so they can spam your e-mail account or steal your name later on depending on the company. In this case NEVER respond to these adds if you don’t now exactly where and who they came from.
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