Facebook is lots of fun and great at keeping you in contact with friends and family as well as sharing your news and views.
What pics are you sharing on Facebook or other Social Networking sites?
Who do you want to see you? How do you want to be seen? Would you be OK with your grandma checking out the pics of you at that party?
What can I do to protect myself on Facebook or other sites?
One of the most fun things to do on sites like Facebook is following links on people’s profiles to see what sorts of things they’re into. However, scams are all over the net, and it can be hard to figure out which links are legit and which aren’t. By the time you’ve figured out you’ve been had, it’s probably too late to retrieve whatever details you’ve unwittingly given out. While this can make it tricky to fully protect yourself online, the tips below can go someway towards helping:
Identity theft is when someone sets up a webpage (or uses documents like passports) to pretend they are you. Sometimes on social networking sites like Facebook, people can set up a page which looks like you made it, but it says mean things about you and makes you look bad. This is a form of harassment and any kind of harassment - online or off - is not OK.
Not everything on the net is what/who you think it is. To make sure you are using the net as safely as possible and so you don't get caught out, read these tips below.
Grooming is when a person tries to ‘set up’ and ‘prepare’ another person to be the victim of sexual abuse. Although not all sexual abuse involves being groomed, it’s a very common (and tricky) process which can be done by strangers or by someone you know. go to (link) http://www.netsafe.org.nz/keeping_safe.php?§ionID=young&titleID=Grooming&pageID=155&menuID=67 for more info about what grooming is and what you can do about it.
Just like the footprint you leave when you walk on the beach, your digital footprint is the trail you leave about yourself when you’re on the net. Anything you do online, including any profiles you have created, the sites you’ve visited and the online conversations you’ve had, add to this trail - even if you think you’ve been doing things anonymously, or have hidden them (e.g. deleted them from your computer)!
If you’re getting scary, mean, rude, or bullying texts from someone, you can report these messages to your mobile phone company. Or if you are with Vodafone you can block that number yourself. Other phone companies can send a warning message to the bully and even cut them off the network.
