Social Media

Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat can be a fun way to keep in touch with your friends, share pictures, jokes and memes. A recent survey by CBBC suggested that more than 75% of children aged between 10 and 12 have a social media account in the UK. Did you know that most social media sites do not allow children under the age of 13 to open an account and some do not allow under 16s?

Do you have a social media account? If you do and you are under 13 you may already be breaking the rules of the site. By having an account underage, you may see, hear or read things that are disturbing, scary or of a sexual nature.

To keep yourself safe if you do use social media sites, remember to check your settings so that you are in control of who sees what you post. Also, try to keep your friends list limited to just real friends or people you actually know. By doing this, you are sure you know who is seeing your posts.

It is important to remember that what you see on social media sites is not always a true picture of what is happening in people’s lives. Sometimes, people may boast or exaggerate when posting to make their lives seem more exciting so do not feel bad about your own life or be jealous. Be happy with yourself, be positive and make your own life interesting by doing fun things with family and friends in real life.

If you want to share details of your life and maybe post pictures, remember, what goes on the internet stays on the internet…for a long time…maybe forever! A silly photo or a rude or mean comment could be seen by lots of people for many years to come and might cause you or other people embarrassment.

Also, when you are older and applying for a job, the company may look at your digital footprint which is the electronic trail you leave behind when you use the internet. Looking at this and any social media posts might affect their view on whether you are the right person for the job. So think before you post!

Chat rooms

Not everyone on the internet is who they say they are, so if you use chat rooms you can stay safe by following some simple rules:

Do not give personal information like your age, address or details of the school you go to and do not talk about where you go regularly.

Do not arrange to meet someone you have met in a chat room unless you have spoken about it to a trusted adult first and they agree. Even if you have permission, do not go by yourself.

Do not do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable during an online chat, like using your webcam or sending pictures of yourself.

If the person you are chatting to gets creepy or makes you feel uncomfortable, stop the chat and block them.

If the conversation turns sexual or you are asked to take your clothes off, STOP, BLOCK and REPORT straight away.

Watch the video below to see how hard it is to be sure about who you are talking to in a chat room.

 

 

Keywords

Click below to hear information on keywords

Memes

Exaggerate

Digitial footprint

Chat rooms