Staying Safe Online

It's important to know how to stay safe when you're using the internet. You should never give out any personal information when you're online to people you do not know face to face - no matter who you think you're talking to.

Some of you may have your own Facebook account that lets you chat with friends and other users. Social network sites are a great way of keeping in touch with people, but you should think carefully before adding someone to your list of friends or posting information that you wouldn't be happy with people seeing.

When you're using a chat room with somebody, NEVER give out any personal information like your address or your phone number. By doing this, you can get yourself into serious trouble because what can happen is; if you decide to give somebody your personal details thinking that it's a friend your giving it to, when actually that somebody your giving your details to turns out to be somebody that is faking who they are and pretending to be one of your friends, then you could be putting yourself into EXTREME danger! So just think again before doing that!

Some websites will ask you to fill out a registration form before you can use what's on the website. This may sound normal to you but it's a good idea to find out what the website will do with your personal details. All companies that collect information have to tell their customers how personal information will be used. Make sure you check the website's terms and conditions before you use the website.

Finally, whenever you use a social network site or any other of that kind where it asks you to make a username and a password so you can get on and off the site. ALWAYS make sure, when you make those usernames and passwords you make sure that they are totally random, (especially the password) so that no body could ever in a million years guess it! If you use a very simple password like "hello" then it is very likely that somebody will guess it so they can get into your account. It's the same with a username, if you make a username that is just your name then somebody will more likely guess it so it's always safe to use random words for your username and password!