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Useful social media tips to stay safe online
Social media is a great way to stay connected with friends, family members and others. It provides us with useful information that can help in our everyday lives!
Social media has become a ubiquitous part of modern life, with users spending an average of two hours per day on social networking sites. While social media can have many positive effects, such as increasing communication and giving people a voice, it can also be extremely harmful. The impact of social media is particularly evident in the way it can affect mental health. Social media users are constantly bombarded with images and messages that can trigger anxiety and comparison. In addition, social media platforms often encourage users to spend more time on their devices, leading to feelings of isolation and loneliness. For many people, social media has become a source of stress and anxiety. However, by being mindful of the way social media affects our lives, we can start to make positive changes.
For businesses, there must be relevant data protection policies including but not limited to social media policy, Internet use, access control and related policies to ensure data protection. This is applicable in both manners whether you process sensitive data (PII) or as a general business. As a minimum, organisations should consider security controls validation in the form of GDPR penetration testing or relevant security reviews for their assets such as infrastructure, applications, APIs or cloud security assessments.
Before we delve into using social media to avoid cyber attacks, it is important that we answer the question: can we still be safe? The short answer is yes, but it requires a bit of extra effort on our part. By being more vigilant about the permissions we grant to apps, checking for secure https:// connections, and ensuring that our devices are up-to-date with the latest security patches, we can help to keep ourselves safe online.
Some facts about social media you should keep in mind.
Secrets have no place on social media; everything you put out there is available to the public. Your information is easily accessible to others, who may use it to inflict harm on you.
Someone is always watching you on social media, and you can’t tell who it is! Make sure it’s a friend rather than an internet predator!
On social media, there are a lot of individuals with bad intentions, so be cautious.
This post will go through some social media internet safety suggestions that will keep you and your family’s sensitive information safe from hackers or other threats.
For individuals – What are the top ten social media safety tips?
- Don’t ever post photos, videos, or other media on any social network that you do not want the world to view (in case things go wrong, and they do!).
- If you are a schoolmate, avoid disclosing personal information that could reveal who you are to anyone on the internet, whether it is another student or someone from another nation.
- It’s critical not to share your login or sensitive information such as credentials, passwords, PIN, secret codes, etc with anybody.
- You should not accept friend requests from individuals you don’t personally know. Do not accept any friend requests from strangers.
- To get rid of any contacts you don’t recognize, anyone who spreads bad news or someone who isn’t making you feel good about yourself, clean your contacts on a regular basis.
- You may maintain your social media profiles private while still keeping them completely hidden. When the youngster grows older and understands how to be responsible online, you can permanently remove anything that isn’t appropriate.
- Even if they appear nice at first sight, avoid interacting with people you don’t know.
- For kids and teenagers, do not share personal information on social networking sites or elsewhere unless your parents have given you permission to do so.
- Make use of multi-factor authentication, alter your passwords on a regular basis, and make sure they’re secure enough to keep you safe.
- Immediately notify your parents and the social networking site if you’re cyberbullied.
Social networking safety tips for parents
The most frequent reason that parents limit their children’s social media usage is due to their concern that their kid will be harassed or threatened on the internet. Parental controls are one of the greatest apps for keeping track of what your child is doing online without having access to their phone.
We can’t ignore the fact that bullying may occur on social networks, which is why parents should be aware of how their children use such sites. Regardless – this does not imply that all social networking platforms are hazardous. That’s why, in order to keep your kids safe while they participate online, we advise you to :
- Encourage your kids to be open with you about their social media activity.
- Agree with them to add you as a friend or follower on all of the platforms they use.
- If possible, set up parental controls on the devices they use to access social media.
- Tell them not to accept friend requests from individuals they don’t know personally.
If you’re a parent, make sure your children are aware of these restrictions. You don’t want to be late and something will happen to your child as a result of their online behaviour.
Check your own social networking accounts’ privacy settings on a regular basis to make sure your kids are aware of these choices.
Be prepared to educate them about computer safety and why it’s critical to be cautious while online. Only allow them to use social networking sites while you’re sitting next to them so they can ask questions if necessary.
About the author:
Harman Singh is a director at Cyphere where he advises businesses on how to protect from cybersecurity threats to businesses. His job involves performing hacking simulations in real-time to explaining technical concepts just like you would to your grandparents.
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