CLICK SMART AND BE SMART USING SOCIAL MEDIA: KIDS
- Never give out your name, age, address, school, phone number, picture about yourself or anyone else without your parent/guardian's permission. This includes any Facebook pages, instant messages, email, or online games.
- Never send your picture to anyone online without your parent/guardian's permission.
- Never agree to meet in person anyone you ‘meet’ online without checking with your parent/guardian first. People aren't always who they say they are and an adult can pretend to be a kid online.
- Tell your parent/guardian immediately if you come across any information that seems weird or makes you feel uncomfortable.
- Never accept emails, enclosures, links, URL's or other things online from people you don't know.
- Never give out your password to anyone except your parent/guardian. Not even your friends.
- Use privacy settings to restrict who can see and post on your profile. Many social networking sites, chat rooms, and blogs have privacy settings. Find out how to turn these settings on, and then do it. Limit your online friends to people you actually know.
- Don't reply to text, email, or pop-up messages that ask you to reply with personal information. Even if the message looks like it comes from a person or organization you know, or threatens that something bad will happen if you don't reply. Always check with your parents.
- Sometimes free stuff, like games, ring tones or screen savers, can hide viruses or spyware. Don't download free stuff unless you trust the source and scan the file with security software. Always ask your parent/guardian first.
Cyber Bullying is bullying that happens online. It can happen in an email, a text message, an online game, or on a social networking site. It might involve rumors or images posted on someone's profile or passed around for other people to see. Bullying in any form is wrong and hurtful.
What do you do if someone harasses you online?
Don’t respond in kind, and make certain to let a parent/guardian know. Sometimes you can stop bullying if you ignore or block the person. You also can report abuse to the website where it's taking place. If it continues, save the evidence and ask for help from a parent or an adult you trust.
What do you do if you see cyber bullying?
If you see something inappropriate on a site or in a game, tell an adult you trust. It’s important to help keep sites fun for everyone.
What can you do?
Be polite! Treat others the way you want to be treated, whether you're interacting with them online, on the phone, or in person.
What you post could have a bigger "audience" than you think.
Even if you use privacy settings, it's impossible to completely control who sees your social networking profile, pictures, videos, or texts. Before you click "send," think about how you will feel if your family, teachers, coaches, or neighbors find it.
Once you post information online, you can't take it back.
You may think that you've deleted information from a site — or that you will delete it later. Know that older versions may exist on other people's computers. That means your posts could live somewhere permanently.
Get someone's okay before you share photos or videos they're in.
Online photo albums are great for storing and sharing pictures of special events, and camera phones make it easy to capture every moment. Stop and think about your own privacy — and other people's — before you share photos and videos online. It can be embarrassing, unfair, and even unsafe to send or post photos and videos without getting permission from the people in them.
This site was compiled with information from OnGaurdOnline.gov, the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Children’s Partnership Organization & SafeKids.com