Safe social networking
Millions of people have a profile on a social networking site, and chances are you're one of them. But is your information safe in the open waters of the internet?
The basics of social networking
Social networking sites are websites you can use to contact friends, share music and photos and join communities of like-minded people.
Every site is different, so before joining you might want to check out the different ones on offer. If you're passionate about music look at last.FM. It lets you create your own radio station, share songs and recommend your favorite tunes to friends. MySpace, Bebo and Facebook are the most popular sites for staying in touch with friends and family. Fashion fanatics can log onto Threadless and post their own designs or blog about fashion nightmares. If you want to forget about reality get lost in Second Life. It's a 3D world where you can interact and chat to other users from around the globe.
When you're choosing a site to join think about who you want to contact and who you want to contact you. Some sites only allow other users to view your profile when you have both agreed to be friends, while others allow strangers to view everyone's postings.
Creating a profile
On most sites users create personal profiles which they can use to add information about themselves, speak to friends, upload pictures of drunken antics and post blogs. When creating your profile consider what information you want to be on the internet about yourself. Most sites allow you to restrict access to your page, so make sure you only select the groups who you want to see your profile.
Lots of people can see your page, like your parents, your college or university, your employer and the police. If you don't want any of these people to know something about you don't put it on your profile. And remember, once you've put something online it stays there. Even if you delete it from your profile it might still exist on older versions that are saved in the cache memory of other computers.
Most social networking sites have strict privacy policies to stop your information being used by others. However, it's still safest to try and keep your deep and dirty secrets to a minimum. Be cautious about including any details that would allow people to find you offline. It's not a good idea to include your date of birth, home address, workplace, telephone number, or email address, as these would make it easy for others to track you down or steal your identity.
Making posts
To avoid any embarrassing real life encounters be careful about what messages you make public. Posting gossipy comments could land you in trouble with your mates - you might have hundreds of online buddies, but your real friends could desert you. It's best to use private messaging for any important issues and public publications for more light-hearted banter.
Lots of sites allow you to post photos of yourself online. When uploading yours ask yourself whether it's something your mum would hang up in the living room. Pictures can be doctored in ways that can be less than flattering, so if you don't want something to come around and bite you on the bum think twice about publishing it.
Making friends
Don't feel obliged to make friends with people you don't like or know. It's not a popularity contest, so go ahead and press that reject button if you want a phony free-friends list.
Sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter allow you to update your friends with your daily activity in the status section. When choosing your status try avoiding generic comments and make it specific. If you say "Bill is in London for the evening" who knows who might get in touch and ask you if you want to meet up.
Staying safe on social networking sites
Be careful about meeting up with any new friends you make online. The internet makes it very easy for people to lie about who they are so be wary about taking everything you see at face value. If you do decide to meet a new online friend in person follow these safety tips:
- Make sure you find out everything you can about them. Ask your friends if they know them and see what you can dig up on them through search engines;
- When you meet up with them make sure you do it during the day in a public place;
- Tell your friends or family where you are going and when you expect to be back;
- Consider taking another friend along with you for safety in numbers;
- If you have any suspicions or feel uncomfortable at any time, call it off;
- Read our article about meeting friends' offline to find out more.
Remember it's good to talk
Social networking makes it quick and easy to contact your friends, but sometimes it's better to speak to them or see them in person. Don't neglect human contact and mix it up between text messages, making calls, and sending emails.
Written by Chris Denholm
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