A Teens Guide to Social Media Safety
There are many different reasons why social media can be a dangerous playground. While the horror stories all focus on kids being lured or abducted, there are far more threats that are less severe. No matter your age or sex, it is important to follow some important rules for social media safety. Before you roll your eyes, please know these guidelines exist to protect you! It’s not about telling you what you can and can’t do… it’s about offering guidelines to protect you from being ripped off, bullied, disrespected, scammed, or worse while you’re just trying to have a good time online.
Child Media Safety
Child Welfare Information Gateway promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families by connecting child welfare, adoption, and related professionals as well as the public to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more.
Common Sense Education
Common Sense is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century.
DFi: Digital Futures Initiative
DFi provides training programs for instructors and parents on how to educate kids on issues that can arise from irresponsible internet use, including harassment, cyberbullying, loss of emotional intelligence, substance use, distracted driving and more.
Internet Safety 101
With the popularity of social networking sites among youth, one of the issues of great concern is how to keep under-age users off of these sites. Although most sites require users to be at least 13 years of age, many children lie about their age in order to join these sites, risking exposure to content and activities suitable only for more mature teens. The following social networking sites are positive alternatives for tweens and younger users.
Kaspersky
With more users accessing the internet through mobile devices risks are changing and growing quickly. This link provides extensive information about how to maintain a healthy, happy and private life online and on social media without making any mistakes that may impact your future.
National Institutes of Health: Social Media & Outreach
Very handy collection of social media used by the National Institutes of Health.
Stay Safe Online
The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) builds strong public/private partnerships to create and implement broad-reaching education and awareness efforts to empower users at home, work and school with the information they need to keep themselves, their organizations, their systems and their sensitive information safe and secure online and encourage a culture of cybersecurity.
Social Networking Advice for Teenagers
Celebrities can afford to employ Reputation Managers to trawl through the net to clean or hide the unfavourable and to trend the positive news about them and their lives. Can you? Best advice is to think before you post and protect yourself by becoming an expert in privacy settings!
Social Networking and Children
Social networking sites play an important role in the lives of many young people. Over 60% of 13-17 year olds have at least one profile on a social networking site, many spending more than two hours per day on social networking sites. Social networking sites can present opportunities to youth who participate with them, but like any activity there are also associated risks. It is important for parents to help their children use these sites wisely.
Teaching Kids to be Smart About Social Media
Most teens use some form of social media and have a profile on a social networking site. Many visit these sites every day. There are plenty of good things about social media — but also many risks and things kids and teens should avoid. They don’t always make good choices when they post something to a site, and this can lead to problems. So it’s important to talk with your kids about how to use social media wisely.
Top 10 Risks of Social MediaÂ
With the up-tick of social media in the business world, you need to be prepared for the risks social media can pose. If your company is using social media, or thinking about jumping in, you need to understand how it will be used by your employees and how to do so safely. Most users don’t truly understand how their own behavior can and will impact the company. Since people will use social media, with or without company approval, it is crucial to understand the line between social and business. Knowing the risks and establishing company guidelines is a step in the right direction.