What teens need to know:

• If it's posted online, it is permanent! One place may delete it, you may delete it, but if one place saved it (and there are archives), it is still there!

• It may identify you by name and location, even by accident on your part!

• It may lead to predators finding you.

• It may lead to losing a job.

• It may lead to denial of college admissions or losing your place in college.

Passwords

• should not identify you in any way

• should have a mix of letters and numbers, capital and lower case letters, and if a site says so should include characters like #&*.

• should not identify your gender (male or femaile).

• should not have your name in them

• should not be your pet's name

• should be changed at least yearly

• should be different for different sites

• the longer, the better

Social Media

• Take care not to use your real name, your age, your address, your school name, or pictures that identify any of those things (pictures of your house with an address number or mailbox number visible or car license plates in them).

• Predators are masters of deception. They know how to make you believe them, and they are liars.

• If it would embarrass you for your parents or employers to see it, you probably shouldn't put it online!

• Check out this site!

Addiction

Psychologists are beginning to worry about people spending too much time online. They fear social media addiction may be as bad or worse than alcohol or drug addiction. The majority believe now that teens are strongly negatively affected by social media and suffer more depression and anxiety than those who are not online as much. Suicide rates seem to indicate this is true. See this article for a brief description.

Cyberbullying

• If you are a victim, tell an adult--your parents, teacher, counselor. They can help.

• If you are tempted to engage in this behavior, know that you are damaging your reputation, harming others, and committing a crime.

Protecting yourself

You need:

• antivirus software on all your devices

• a firewall on all your devices

• malware protection on all your devices

• strong passwords (see above)

• to treat your smartphone like a computer

• to recognize scams, phishing, and spoofing and avoid them

• to read site policies and know what you are agreeing to (for instance, are they selling your personal data?)

For more information, check out a book about this topic from your library.