How to Stay Safe While Building Your Online Network
The Internet is a great way to build social and professional networks. Blogs, social networking sites, e-mail distribution lists, newsgroups, and chat rooms all provide opportunities to connect with people who share your interests. If you use the Internet regularly, chances are you already belong to one or more online communities where you exchange ideas and information.
Keep in mind, by networking and engaging in online communities you're building an online reputation , and you want to make sure it represents you well. In addition, scammers , predators, and other online criminals also read blogs and participate in online communities, hoping to discover personal information they can use to take advantage of people.
Tips for Safely Building Online Networks
By following a few basic guidelines, you can build your online community safely and help protect your privacy while still enjoying the benefits of networking online:
- Be careful what you share. Online communities ask you for a user name, e-mail address, and password when you sign up. You may also be asked for more personal information, such as your birth date, occupation, home and work addresses, phone numbers, gender, marital status, and so on.
Web sites want personal information because it helps them build community and enables them to provide advertisers with demographic information about their members, but whether to share those details is your decision. Remember, the more personal information you reveal online, the more vulnerable you are to scams, spam, and identity theft. Bottom line: If you wouldn't want a stranger to have your personal information, don't share it online or put it into an online profile. In addition, consider creating user names and e-mail addresses that do not include your last name or family name. - Look before you post. Before you sign up with an online community, read the privacy policy and user code of conduct to find out how the site uses the information it collects and what it requires of its users. Reading this information may seem tedious, but it's important and could save you trouble later on.
- Don't go public. Many blogging and networking sites enable you to control who can see and comment on your blog, profile, or Web pages. If you're building a business network to enhance your career or find a new job, leaving your profile public may be good strategy, but opening your personal profile or blog to everyone is like stapling the pages of your journal on your front door. Too much information could hurt your business opportunities or make you more vulnerable to online scams.
- Think long-term. Consider your blogs, profiles, and community site comments as a permanent record. Even if you delete something, remember that anything published on the Web could have been viewed, e-mailed, printed or archived by almost anyone. Just because you change your mind or lose interest doesn't mean your content disappears from the Internet.
- Stay alert. As you get to know more people online, you may begin to share information casually, as with a trusted friend. Scammers count on that false security to gather personal information that can help them commit fraud or steal your identity. Continue to use common sense as you make online friends. Listen to your instincts about people.
How to Protect Your Kids Online
Children and teenagers are blogging, creating social networks, and participating in online communities even more than adults. If you have children or grandchildren-or other kids in your life who are important to you-these additional tips can help you keep them safe when they are interacting with people online:
- Set house rules for Internet use. Set limits on when and how long your children are allowed to use the computer. Many children's sites encourage kids to visit daily and spend a lot of time online by tying "success" on the site to the number and variety of activities they complete.
- Respect age limits. Most social networking sites restrict membership to people 13 and older. If your children are younger, don't let them use the site.
- Teach your kids to keep personal information private. Kids should never share personal information-such as their full name, address, phone number, school, or photos of themselves-with people they meet online. Predators can use such information to identify and locate children they want to exploit.
- Talk to your kids. Encourage your kids to tell you if they encounter something online that makes them feel uncomfortable or at risk. Make sure they understand they won't be in trouble for confiding in you.
- Use technology to help reduce risks. A pop-up blocker can help reduce the chances of kids being exposed accidentally to inappropriate online content. Also, the family safety settings in Windows Vista and some other software programs enable you to set limits on the computer games your kids can play and the types of Web content they can view online.
