Blog Beware

The Solution

Tips to Keep Your Children and Teens Safer When Using Social Networking Sites

1. Discuss the dangers and future repercussions with your child.
2. Enter into a safe-computing contract with your child about his or her use of these sites and computer use in general.
3. Enable computer Internet filtering features if they are available from your Internet service.
4. Install monitoring software or keystroke capture devices on your family computer that will help monitor your child's Internet activity.*
5. Know each of your child's passwords, screennames, and all account information.
6. Put the computer in a family area of the household and do not permit private usage.
7. Monitor what your child's friends are posting regarding your child's identity. Often children and their friends have accounts linked to one another, so it's not just your child's profile and information you need to worry about.
8. Know what other access your child has to computers and devices like cell phones and PDAs.
9. Report all inappropriate non-criminal behavior to the site through their reporting procedures.
10. Report criminal behavior to the appropriate law-enforcement agency including the NCMEC CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com or the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.
11. Contact your legislators and request stronger laws against Internet crime.
12. Visit the NetSmartz Workshop at www.NetSmartz.org for more information.
13. Remember that every day is Halloween on the Internet. People on the Internet are not always who they appear to be.

*For information about monitoring software, visit www.getnetwise.org.

Tips for Kids and Teens to Stay Safer When Using Social Networking Sites

1. Never post your personal information, such as cell phone number, address, or the name of your school.
2. Be aware that information you give out in blogs could also put you at risk of victimization. People looking to harm you could use the information you post to gain your trust. They can also deceive you by pretending they know you.
3. Never give out your password to anyone other than your parent or guardian.
4. Only add people as friends to your site if you know them in real life.
5. Never meet in person with anyone you first "met" on a social networking site. Some people may not be who they say they are.
6. Think before posting your photos. Personal photos should not have revealing information, such as school names or locations. Look at the backgrounds of the pictures to make sure you are not giving out any identifying information without realizing it. The name of a mall, the license plate of your car, signs, or the name of your sports team on your jersey or clothing all contain information that can give your location away.
7. Never respond to harassing or rude comments posted on your profile. Delete any unwanted messages or friends who continuously leave inappropriate comments. Report these comments to the networking site if they violate that site's terms of service.
8. Check the privacy settings of the social networking sites that you use:
   1. Set it so that people can only be added as your friend if you approve it.
   2. Set it so that people can only view your profile if you have approved them as a friend.
9. Remember that posting information about your friends could put them at risk. Protect your friends by not posting any names, ages, phone numbers, school names, or locations. Refrain from making or posting plans and activities on your site.
10. Consider going through your blog and profile and removing information that could put you at risk. Remember, anyone has access to your blog and profile, not just people you know.