Like any Mother, I love Facebook and joined in when it was first launched (after ditching Friendster). However, it’s so easy to get caught up with what you share on Facebook that we don’t realize that we could be putting both our kids and ourselves in real danger.
I read this article on Yahoo from (here) and thought I’d re-post the sections specially for Mothers here:
Using a Weak Password
Avoid simple names or words you can find in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. A password should have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers or symbols in the middle of a word, such as this variant on the word “houses”: hO27usEs!
Leaving Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile
It’s an ideal target for identity thieves, who could use it to obtain more information about you and potentially gain access to your bank or credit card account. If you’ve already entered a birth date, go to your profile page and click on the Info tab, then on Edit Information. Under the Basic Information section, choose to show only the month and day or no birthday at all.
Overlooking Useful Privacy Controls
For almost everything in your Facebook profile, you can limit access to only your friends, friends of friends, or yourself. Restrict access to photos, birth date, religious views, and family information, among other things. You can give only certain people or groups access to items such as photos, or block particular people from seeing them. Consider leaving out contact info, such as phone number and address, since you probably don’t want anyone to have access to that information anyway.
Posting Your Child’s Name in a Caption
Don’t use a child’s name in photo tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking on Remove Tag. If your child isn’t on Facebook and someone includes his or her name in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.
Mentioning That You’ll Be Away From Home
That’s like putting a “no one’s home” sign on your door. Wait until you get home to tell everyone how awesome your vacation was and be vague about the date of any trip.
Letting Search Engines Find You
To help prevent strangers from accessing your page, go to the Search section of Facebook’s privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. Be sure the box for public search results isn’t checked.
Permitting Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and over, but children younger than that do use it. If you have a young child or teenager on Facebook, the best way to provide oversight is to become one of their online friends. Use your e-mail address as the contact for their account so that you receive their notifications and monitor their activities. “What they think is nothing can actually be pretty serious,” says Charles Pavelites, a supervisory special agent at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. For example, a child who posts the comment “Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes” every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents’ regular comings and goings.
Stay safe, everyone. Reading this, I think I should just stick to blogging about urban clothing.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
i totally agree also that alot of us freely mention things that is a dead giveaway to those weirdos out there.
Facebook is such a waste of time. However, I know its the way our society communicates these days. Between texting, e-mailing and facebook, I feel our social skills are being diminished. It also opens the door for rude and uncalled for language that probably would not be said if it were a face to face conversation.
syn – I think I’ve only logged on to Facebook like 6 (ok, maybe 10) times this year? Just don’t have the time…who knows maybe later when the baby’s bigger.
Michelle – Yes, I agree with you esp after having seen the cases of “cyber-bullying” on Facebook and blogs. Guess that’s why I still prefer the regular meet-ups and interactions with family, neighbours and friends.