Regardless of age, online personal safety is important for many reasons. Younger people are much less aware of this fact because they’re young and trusting. They have nothing to be concerned about except having fun connecting with their friends. It would help if you learned these Helpful tips to be safe online.
We’ve developed tips to be safe online because we were concerned for your well-being and your family’s safety. Let’s take Facebook, for starters. You do have to tell them your birthday when you sign up because they need to know that you’re not old enough to be on the platform. If you’re 10, you won’t be approved.
We strongly suggest you instruct Facebook not to publish the year because that’s an important piece of personal information that identifies you.
Moving right along, don’t list your address. Hackers troll social media sites, and it’s not because they want to be friends. And according to research that we conducted last year, over 50 percent of the people on Facebook are fakes.
Within this group, we have hackers, stalkers, and social media assistants who manage multiple Facebook sites for clients. These assistants find multiple accounts useful.
As far as the Birthday Club on Facebook or the games, we don’t recommend joining for several reasons, including:
- You will be asked for your full birthday
- Your friends may be exposed and at risk.
- Hackers, bullies, and stalkers hang out here too
- The Birthday Club wants access to use your information to contact your contacts.
The Facebook Fakes
Don’t list your home address, email, or phone number. For example, list Philadelphia Metro Area in the downtown Philly area. Hackers, stalkers, and bullies troll social media sites, and it’s not because they want to be friends.
According to our research last year, over 50 percent of the people on Facebook are fakes. It may be hard to believe, but it’s true. Within this group, we also have social media assistants who manage multiple client sites. These assistants find multiple accounts useful If they need to increase Likes and chatter.
Be Careful About The Information You Post
Your vacation or business travel plans can be private. If you’re taking the family to San Francisco for two weeks, the Facebook and Twitter world does not need to know this. You may have read about one man who shared his vacation plans with his Facebook friends. He listed dates, times, hotels, etc., online.
The vacation was wonderful, but the family returned to a ransacked house. And, by the way, his home address was listed on Facebook, so it was very early for the burglars to plan the robbery.
If you want to share your vacation experience and photos, do it after the fact. Most of our tips to be safe online also include Twitter. For women especially, we recommend that they approve Twitter followers rather than letting anyone follow them.
Whether it’s Twitter or Facebook, anyone can ask to become friends or follow you. Be careful who you choose to become involved with.
Helpful tips to be safe online for Job Seekers
If you’re looking for work, it’s recommended that you don’t list your home address on the resume. You can follow the same advice about your address we mentioned for Facebook — list the general area, such as New York Metro Area, rather than the exact city and state. It’s OK to list your email and phone — preferably your cell phone.
Educating Your Children About Online Safety
Instruct your children and teens about using public computers in the library or other places with Wi-Fi. Make it clear that they should only pay bills, check bank balances, pay credit cards, shop online, or send money via PayPal if they use their computer connected to public Wi-Fi. Educate your children about how easy it is for them to be hacked using any public Wi-Fi and how dangerous it is to put yourself at risk.
Password Security
It’s also a good idea to have a serious discussion about computer password security with your children. Who should not share passwords with anyone regardless of who they’re with, even if they are with their best friends?
Also Read:
- Can You be Safe Online For Real?
- How To Stay Safe Online
- Online Safety: Learning Computer Defense Basics
- How to Deal With an Online Stalker
- 10 Internet Safety Tips Everyone Should Consider
Who should also change passwords frequently; it’s not a good idea to use the same password for every site. It makes it too easy to get hacked.
Passwords should be easy for you to remember but hard for someone else to guess. Using upper and lower case letters mixed with numbers and punctuation helps to create strong passwords. Creating passwords with unusual sentences is also helpful. To cite one example: DukeTHEdogisnotAcat!!3.
