Share a Social Network Safety Rule

On-line safety is very important to me, especially now that my kids have gotten older and are on-line with me. I’ve been blogging about the different events and situations that I or my friends have encountered by choosing to become members of the social networks. It is my hope that my posts will reach many and will help them to avoid being a victim of a scam or other emotional and financial hurt.  It is my belief that much benefit can be gained from social networks, as long as we learn and keep to a set of safety rules.

 

I would love to hear from you!!! Please leave a comment with any safety rules that you think would help your friends, family, coworkers and  many others to have a pleasant and secure experience while on Twitter, LinkedIn,  eHarmony, Facebook and any other on-line networks.

Why you shouldn’t cancel your Social Network Membership

In chatting with some of my friends it has come to my attention that a few of them find that the safest protection is to be completely off the social network sites.

I agree that is safer, but not at all necessary. Plus if your reason to cancel is to avoid exposure, I don’t think it will help. You might be tagged in a picture or video that your friend posted, or you might be referenced on a message board. Googling your name often is a good idea. The search results provide a quick insight to public information about you. If you find something inappropriate, you can locate the culprit and ask them to delete anything you are not comfortable with.

            Knowing about the potential dangers and finding ways to moderate on-line behavior is the key. There are many benefits to your social network membership that you shouldn’t have to miss out on. Here are a few of them:

• Sites like Linked In offer great opportunities for people to keep in touch and build their professional network. Professional social network sites bring together not just past connections but it is a quick way for recruiters or direct employers to research your credentials and offer you a job opportunity. Another benefit to staying connected with your peers is having an insight to the competition. Knowing how you compare to others in your field is a great way to determine how competitive your skill set is and if an update is needed.
• Sites like eHarmony and Match.com provide a great service in helping people to find a connection both romantically and as friends. Many more people are finding matches that are based on compatibility and honest sharing.
•  Sites like YouTube allow us to express and share our creativity through short film. Videos where we are either the producer or a star. Each individual is able to create a channel that further shows their interest through a collection of videos of famous bands, old movies, TV shows, cartoons and many more.
•  Sites like Facebook and MySpace provide an environment that allows us to stay connected with our childhood friends, family members that have moved away and other friends made along the way. Other than the daily posts, these sites also offer opportunities to reach a large audience with important messages about environment or politics.
• Our children are introduced to social networks through the imaginary worlds of Webkinz, BuildABear, Club Penguin or PetShops. At an early age they learn about being responsible for their pets, making friends and playing mind challanging games. As parents we hope that this exposure will build their problem solving skills and will help them evolve into kind and caring youngsters. 

 

There are many other social network sites out there than referenced above. Each one has a unique model and offers great opportunities to their members. It is possible to enjoy all these benefits and still keep your personal information secured.

My Kids Are Part of My Network

My daughter and I had made a deal that if she were to finish two novels of my choosing, she will be rewarded with her very own Facebook account. She is only 10 years old, but for the past year she has been begging to join her friends on Facebook.

Now that she is finally on, her network consists of over 50 connections. Kids from her grade, Girl Scout troop or other children she had met during our summer vacations. All of these kids’ ages range anywhere from 9 years old to 14 years old.

I have been on Facebook for over a year now. During this time I have received friend requests from classmates, coworkers, friends that I see every week, family members mine and my husband’s, recruiters, even an ex-tenant and recently my daughter and her friends. Additionally, I had selected to follow community and business pages that are of interest to me. I signed up for a few games and get daily horoscope updates. Up until now I had been accepting every friend or site request and growing my network, without worrying much about what posts, videos or photos I am linked with. After all we are all adults here (WRONG!)

With my daughter joining I now feel like I have a brand new responsibility to ensure that she is not exposed to anything inappropriate based on my activities or those I am connected to.  I am concerned that she or her friends may pick ideas or topics out of my posts or those from my friends that they are just not yet ready for.

People join social networks for many different reasons. My daughter joined because she was looking for easy chats with her friends, girly quizzes and fun games. Others are on it because it’s a great source to advertise their businesses or ideas. Some because it offers a way to meet other people both for personal and professional reasons. Social networks also offer an easy gateway to reach out to broad audience.

What ever the reason one joins a social network, unfortunately the information that we are exposed to is not limited and may not fully be controlled. With our children being part of the network, the desire to monitor their social exposure becomes even more important.

It’s not just the strangers that I need to watch out for, but it is also my actions that could create an unpleasant environment for my kids. I would love to just cancel my daughter’s account and keep her strictly on Barbie.com. Unfortunately, too many of her peers are now on Facebook, MySpace or YouTube. No longer satisfied with the pre-defined messages of BuildABear or WebKinz our children are ready to evolve into the next generation of chat and social connection. My daughter was very excited about being able to post on my wall. I see a lot of great value for our new connection, but it also worries me.

I appreciate any thoughts or suggestions, from other concerned folks out there. Do you find that your behavior on social networks should somehow be modified now that your kids are part of your network?