Social Networking Safety for Teens and Young Adults
Social Networking Safety
Understanding Social Networking Sites
Social networking websites allow users to connect and communicate with others. People use social networking to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues, and to meet new people. You’ve probably heard of some of these sites; you may also have heard about them in the news, either in connection with child abusers making contact with young people online or young people themselves using the sites to bully and target others. However, young people can protect themselves and behave responsibly when using social networking sites if they know how.
Key Features of Social Networking Sites
While each site is a little different, they have similar characteristics and allow users to do similar things, such as:
- Create a Profile: Personal profile pages enable people of all ages to create a webpage about themselves. These are popular with young people and adults alike. The page can include information such as name, contact details, address and location, birthday, photo, likes, and interests. It also allows users to ‘post’ or upload comments about themselves onto the page.
- Set Privacy Settings: Privacy settings allow people to adjust who has access to what information. For example, you could set privacy settings to the lowest level and allow everyone to see all of the information on your personal profile. Be aware that privacy settings can change frequently. As new applications are added to social networking sites, new privacy settings are also added.
- Make a Friend: Once a profile page has been created, the user can connect to people they know who also have a profile on the website. This ‘connection’ will mean that you can now see each other’s personal information and photos and send each other messages. Make sure that you understand that ‘friends’ should be people you know, like family members or school friends. People you only meet online may not be who they say they are. You should never meet someone in person who you have only ever spoken to on the Internet.
- Post Pictures: Profile pages allow the user to add a main picture of themselves, and on most sites, you can create albums and add hundreds of pictures. Sometimes, in the privacy settings, you can control who can see your pictures: everyone, friends of friends, or just friends.
The ‘Share All’ Culture
Most young people today are entirely comfortable with recording their entire lives online, much like other generations used to do in a diary. While this ‘finger on the pulse, share all’ culture has some benefits, it can also create an environment in which teenagers and young people make impulsive decisions without thinking through the possible consequences. Often, they are only a click away from doing something digitally that they would not normally do in the real world.
Potential Consequences
This could result in immediate consequences, possibly within the school environment, or more serious consequences later in life, such as if a prospective college, university, or employer were to see it.
Online Risks
Many online games involve interacting with other players, meaning your child could be interacting with strangers in an environment they feel completely comfortable and at ease in. Many game sites will also allow the user to create a profile using personal information, and without the proper safety precautions, this could be open for all to see. The same risks that apply to general chat rooms, therefore, apply in gaming situations, particularly with regard to personal information and inappropriate conversations or language.