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 In the Winter 07 edition of The LINC magazine, we ran a feature
called ‘The Facecrook’ Experiment; highlighting just how easy it is for
fraudsters and other folk with less-than-honest intentions to get hold
of your personal information through social-networking site Facebook.
Nobody is saying that Facebook and similar sites such as Myspace and
Bebo aren’t undoubtedly a great way to chat and exchange pictures and
videos with your mates, check out new music or simply kill a bit of
boredom, and whilst these sites attract an international audience of
millions, they aren’t without their dangers.
In our ‘Facecrook Experiment’ we found a number of young people in Wigan
Borough who were more than willing to give a complete stranger enough
personal information to set up credit cards and bank overdrafts in their
name.
And whilst we know that, even if you did dish out your details to all
and sundry, not all of you would be able to apply for a credit card
should a fraudster try to, simply mentioning where you go to
school/college or where you work at the weekend, whether mentioning it
directly or posting pictures of you in your uniform or outside the
building can leave you at great risk of being tracked down by sexual
predators.
We really don’t mean to put the frighteners on you, but these sort of
things do happen, like the case back in Earlier this year, sexual
predator Ian Hunter posed as a 26-year-old woman on MySpace and after
adding Ellie Budd (15), Olivia Lewis (16) and Natasha Gavin (15) as
friends and monitoring their profiles, he managed to find out enough
information to corner the girls on a school trip to London’s Tate Modern
Gallery.
So, what to do?
Perhaps surf the net for tips on how to stay safe online. Yet when we
fired up Google and searched for ‘Young people staying safe online’,
most of the websites and articles were aimed at parents, advising them
on how to protect their children by monitoring their ‘net access,
installing filtering software and such like.
Yet surely if we’re old enough to use the internet, we’re old enough to
be trusted how to use it safely and sensibly?
Your best bet is perhaps to make sure you’re already as safe as can be
on Myspace, or Facebook, or whichever site you use without anyone else
having to do it for you. That way, not are you proving to your parents
that you’re sensible enough to act responsible in the vast wilderness
that is Cyberspace, but you’re protecting yourself from fraud, ID theft,
predators and all kinds of stuff that could put you in serious danger if
you don’t play it safe.
Here then, are our top tips for safe social-networking.
• Don’t give in to peer pressure.
This is true in all forms of life, but when you’re online, just because
your mates are posting their birthdays, phone numbers and revealing
pictures of themselves, doesn’t mean you have to do it too.
• Don’t post too much personal information.
This is fairly obvious, but if you post your mobile number, your
address, your full name, an e-mail address or similar information then
people can use it for all kinds of things that you probably wouldn’t
want them to.
• Pick a user name that doesn’t include any personal information.
For example, ‘chris_wigan84’ reveals lots about you, whereas
‘girlsaloudfan’ or ‘smellyboy’ doesn’t.
• Use a separate e-mail address.
That way, you can just use that account for social-networking and keep
your regular e-mail address a secret except amongst your close friends.
You can get as many free e-mail addresses as you like from sites like
Yahoo! Or Hotmail, but remember not to use an address that gives too
much personal information away.
• Don’t publish pictures you wouldn’t want your Gran to see.
This is another fairly obvious one, but you’d be surprised how many
young people post pictures of themselves on Myspace in not-so-innocent
situations. As a general rule, don’t publish anything you wouldn’t want
your Gran to look at over the dinner table. You never know who’s looking
at your profile!
• Use the site’s privacy settings.
Sites such as Facebook have privacy settings allowing you to hide your
details altogether, or only show them to those on your friends list.
• Make friends you can trust
Ideally, only add people to your social-networking profiles who you
already know in ‘real-life’. However, most of us like to meet new people
and make new friends. If this sounds like you, then at least make sure
that the person who asks you to add them as a friend at least sounds
genuine. If they turn out to be less genuine than you first thought,
block them immediately and take steps to ensure they can’t contact you
in anyway.
It was surprising how many people accepted our friend requests from our
fake Facebook profile when all we’d included was a picture of a band and
two favorite TV shows.
• Never arrange to meet up with someone if they refuse to send you a
picture and chat to you on the phone.
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
• If you do meet up, let someone know, and ideally, take a friend.
Not everyone you’ll meet online will be up to no good. There are lots of
genuine people out in Cyberspace, and chances you might make a really
good friend, or even find that special someone whilst you’re logged on.
Inevitably, if you’re 100% sure you can trust them, you’ll want to meet
them. If you do, make sure someone, preferably your parents, knows where
you’ll be. If you can, take a mate along with you, keep your mobile on
at all times and be home when you say you’ll be home.
This might sound like a long list of
do’s and don’ts, but trust us on this one, if you follow these few
simple steps, you’ll have a much more enjoyable time online.
Recommended Link:
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www.getsafeonline.org
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