One of the great things about social networking sites is that you can share information with many people, and fast. You can post your holiday photos online while you’re still away; as soon as you return you can check out the profiles of the people you met and send them a message. But remember that anything you post may be seen by lots more people than you may think.
Posting online
Most sites allow you to create a profile for yourself. This can be as simple as a username and contact email address, or it may include a photo, a description of you, likes and dislikes, music and videos. It may also link in to your online friends’ profiles. It could be seen by thousands of people and not everyone will agree with what you write.
When posting on websites it’s also worth thinking about the impression you’re creating – would what you write or the pictures you post cause embarrassment in real life? How would you feel if a potential employer or your parents saw details of your private life?
Protecting personal details
Privacy settings control the amount of information people can see about you. On some sites these are automatically set at the most private level but on others all your information can be seen by other people unless you specify otherwise. Set the privacy level as strictly as you can. Remember, you can’t take information back from people once they’ve seen it but you can always put more information on once you become more comfortable with a site and its users.
It’s worth regularly reading the privacy policies and user agreements on sites to understand how they use your personal information, for example do they pass it on to marketing companies?
Be cautious...
Be careful about what you post online. Little bits of information can be used by others to build up a picture of you that could be misused. Don’t reveal your home address, telephone number, date of birth or where you work to strangers. Keep your password safe and avoid obvious ones that others may guess, particularly if you also use it for other things like internet banking. It’s also worth having a separate email address just for social networking so you don’t have to give away any other contact details.
But enjoy...
Most people do use social networking sites safely. They are a great way of meeting new friends and keeping in touch with old ones. Control access to yourself online the same way you would offline. As long as sites allow you to control who you contact, who contacts you and what, if any, information they find out about you, they can be a privacy-friendly way to socialise.
If something starts to spoil your enjoyment – unwanted attention, offensive comments – report it to the site administrator.
Above all, learn how the sites you use work and use them safely.
Happy networking!
Top tips for protecting your personal information
- Check out the privacy settings of websites
- Read the privacy policies and user agreements regularly
- Keep passwords secret and change them often
- Remember what you tell people online can affect your safety offline
- Reality check – would you want parents, teachers or employers to see your profile?