Five things we can start doing, to protect our young school kids, students and ourselves online. Every day we learn that large Tech companies including Facebook, Amazon, Google, Snapchat, Microsoft fail to defend our privacy (and appear to many, as simply not caring) and openly sell and share our data with valued commercial partners, as Facebook describes those of us who buy advertising which includes us at BeSecureOnline. Like Google, they have morphed into the two largest advertising companies in the world. Facebook struggle with the fact that selling access to their data, as they thwart users access to their own friends and followers, Facebook is not 'free to air' anymore. Perhaps you should do is to 'switch on your privacy settings on Facebook. Facebook privacy setting.
Passwords are core to internet safety vital to our daily lives using totally outdated technology from the 1970s. Combatting 2019 crime with 1970s technology is clearly ridiculous. We are the ones at fault, we simply refuse to do it.
Every year, '123456' and 'password' top the most used and newly created passwords in surveys. The two most dangerous, easily broken passwords ever. We are not alone, Former head of the CIA, John Brennan used his wife's phone number to protect his personal Yahoo! mail while Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg used 'Dada' following the birth of his first child.
It's time to stop using names, sequential numbers, birthdays as passwords. For example, Mums first name and her phone number is not a password, in fact, it's an invitation to rob her. Average kid has nearly 15 passwords, most adult has nearly 25 password-controlled accounts.
A. Buy a password manager online *Best option* B. Start to use separate passwords, adults should have at least 3 commonly used STRONG passwords C. 2 Factor Verification, receive code to Phone D. Names and common words should be avoided.
A password manager (For example Dashlane, Lastpass) is easily the best option along with 2FV Two-factor verification.
Find your own style, don’t post simply to be popular, copied or shared especially, if it isn’t you. That doesn’t suit everyone. It’s not a race to 5,000 followers, choose your friends wisely, don’t accept all friend requests. It’s called social media not stranger media, they are meant to be your friends in the first place. Social media is called ‘social' for a reason, it’s intended to be friendly, social and positive - not a platform for meanness, bullying and fakery. Be real, be nice, be yourself. If you have nothing to post, don’t post.
Furthermore, if you don’t like content or the nature of a message just received, take a breath before responding, think, take your time. Remember it’s social media not unsocial media. There’s no substitute for knowing what your online presence says. Some of this you’ll know because you created it! However, an online reputation is a two-way street. Sit down one day, see if what you have posted over the last 5 years would pass the ‘Grandmother test’. Would your Granny be impressed or annoyed, upset, that’s the test. If you are shocked yourself, it’s bad. Do you allow comments, if so what do they say?. Remember it’s how the world see who you are. If there are negative comments, read them, consider deleting them. Don't forget your social media profile, postings, are a big part of developing proper relationship including attracting new boyfriends, girlfriends.
The online world is more aggressive, spiteful, mean, robust. We are all quick to be offended and generally more sensitive. The internet doesn’t have a social filter, it's just an output device without a brain or a social filter. Children often don’t consider the impact of their Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat posts. Bullies, their victims, attention seekers and the children in between all need to have the implications of their online words explained to them so that the enormity of their actions is understood. The internet never forgets and the Public never forgives.
It is vital to think before clicking, the brain is far more important than the finger. Fingers don’t think, they just click. Cyberbullying is one of the biggest issues plaguing schools today – that together with sexting. Make sure your child knows they can talk to you, if they are being bullied online, it must not be implied, left unsaid, tell them– suicide and self-harm statistics are steadily increasing as more and more children enter the online world. This was the case in Holly Russell, whose suicide lead to Facebook announcing that they would take down 'self-harm' content on Instagram. Her father pursued Facebook relentlessly, following his discovering her suicidal tendencies on her Instagram following her death. Facebook relented days after the UK Secretary of State for Health Hancock was interviewed on the BBC threatening new laws to curb social media companies.
Facebook analysis states that fake proxy accounts are 5 times more likely to bully. It’s obvious but the extent of the bullying is truly awful. Facebook state that they took action on billions of fake proxy accounts last year, 2.5 billion, was deactivated or taken down in 2019, billions not millions. These were all fake accounts whose reason for being was simply not genuine. So Facebook took them down. The clue is in the name of this Facebook Link.
Remember if you lose your account on Facebook, you are most likely to be taken off Instagram, WhatsApp too. Facebook own 70% of all social media platforms via Instagram and WhatsApp too, so they won't miss you once you are cut from their network. Facebook doesn't own Snapchat.
Best Community Guidelines for Social Media Profiles Profile - Your Real Name incl. Pic if you like Followers ‘Kids’ less than 20 & ‘Teenagers less than 200 Privacy Setting - My Friends Only - Not Public.
Even with properly set privacy settings, certain things are just better left unsaid. especially online, for example, does your mum really want you to tell your friends, she’s pregnant, or has cancer, before she tells her own mother which happens every day of the week. Tell your Dad, before boasting to friends on SnapChat, that you made the team, got the summer job, passed your exams. Common sense, but everyday people overdo things online. It’s not an episode of the Kardashians, it’s your life.
When you are a Teenager nothing matters to you, but it does to others, you are creating your digital imprint on the internet now, building your online reputation, your digital presence. All the nights out, the fake tan, short skirts, all the flesh, all the tattoo’s, the booze-fueled fun, middle fingers to the world. It’s natural for us to share this online with friends. But is this all you share, is there anything else you could post to paint another picture of you, creating a better impression. If you are enjoying a night out, leave the phone in your pocket, you might need the battery to call your Dad for a lift home. The world doesn’t especially future employers, your team coach, need to know and neither do your best mates that you’re out at a party that they weren’t invited to, knocking back the Tequila and overdoing it on Snapchat, Instagram also. As we say, some things are just better left unsaid, unSnapped.
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