Tips on how to stay safe on social network sites
Yesterday, my heart went out to a mom who was begging on national television, through a local news program, for her daughter to come back home. Her daughter has been missing for several days after allegedly going for an eye ball with some guy she knew through Friendster and her family was no longer assured of her safety.
So how can we stay safe with social network sites (ie Friendster, MySpace, Facebook etc.)?
1. Limit the amount of personal information you post. I’ve seen some people who even posted their home address, cellphone number, and e-mail address. This information could make you vulnerable to phishing and spam, stalkers, and several malicious acts.
2. Limit your friends to those you know. Never add anonymous invites because you maybe exposing your identity to potential abusers.
3. Assess the information you receive. Don’t believe everything you read online. Everybody can post misleading information about their own identity.
4. Limit your profile access to your friends. Some social networking sites enable this feature so it will be better if you take advantage of it.
5. Assess which photos to post. Friendster has put an option to post photos in private and many members had been taking it as a good way to store “revealing” photos. But remember, most networking sites have security flaws which could potentially expose you online. Recently, there had been news about four boys who went diving, posed topless, then posted it to MySpace to share it to their friends. Later they found out that these photos have been edited and were scattered over porn site.
Those photos that ought to be “private”, should be put in private. You can keep it to a PC folder, encrypt it. It is more safer than uploading it to websites.
6. Lastly, remember that the internet is a public resource so everybody has access to it. It is therefore recommended to post only the information you are comfortable with sharing to anyone.
Children and young people are particularly vulnerable to online abuse due to their young age and inexperience. It is children’s lack of experience and their trusting nature that is exploited by abusers, especially when children are testing out their identities and being given more freedom by their parents.
How to detect that you may be dealing with potential abusers, stalkers, or other malicious people:
1. He asks for personal details: name; address; telephone number; mobile number; name of school or a photograph;
2. He offers you opportunities for modeling or a high-salary job. In the case of that girl I was talking above, she was offered a job as a nurse-aid for Php15,000.00 monthly. The monthly salary is way over the initial salary of nurse aid.
3. He seems eager to meet you up offline. It is highly advised that you should not meet up everyone you know online.
4. Your conversations are focused more about your personal life and rarely talks about his.
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