Social Networking Safety | Chat room tips

Twitter is a short messaging service that can be used to post your opinions on current affairs, the media or anything else, on the internet. By setting up a Twitter profile, you are able to follow other users, organisations or groups that you are interested in. When you sign into Twitter, you are presented with a list of the latest posts from the accounts you are following. Following organisations and individuals with Twitter can be a great way of keeping up with their news. Many organisations now have a Twitter account in which they will post information about new products and services, upcoming events and recent activities.

When posting on Twitter, it is important to remember the character limit it employs - no more than 140 characters. Similarly to Facebook, Twitter can be used to post links to your personal website/blog to help increase website traffic. Twitter users can search for “tweets” containing keywords to find other peoples posts on trending topics. By posting interesting comments, you can quickly build a strong follower base. Once you have, posting links to your personal blog or website will be even more likely to increase your website's traffic.

By utilising Facebook and Twitter correctly, you can keep in touch with friends and colleagues, post original content, advertise your website/blog and increase the traffic to your site.

Find out more:

For further information visit: www.twitter.com

Social networks are websites where you can create a profile about yourself and contact other people, and engage in discussions (called forums) about your shared interests. Social networks make it easy to stay in touch with friends or colleagues in an informal way, and to share music, photos or video, as well as to chat.

The very nature of these sites encourages people to share a lot of personal information, including photos, dates of birth, and even contact details. It’s very easy to post detailed personal information on a social networking site almost without thinking about it. Unfortunately, once you have published that kind of information online you can’t easily retract it, delete it or hide it. Your details are there for everyone to see.

It’s possible to use social networking sites effectively without putting yourself at risk by sharing too much personal information.

Follow our top ten tips below, and enjoy a safe social networking experience.

1. Before signing up to a website or a social network read their privacy policy and their terms and conditions so that you are comfortable with how that social network will deal with your information.  You should remember that social networks view their users as the product they are selling to their customers which are the advertising companies on that network.  The more personal information the social network has about you the more information it can sell to the advertising companies to target you with their products.

2. Review the privacy settings of the social network(s) that you are using and ensure they are set to the level most appropriate to protect your privacy. You should review those privacy settings on a regular basis to ensure that they still are at the required level - many social networks change their privacy settings without telling users, which can catch you out.

3. Be very careful about the information you post online as it can impact you in the real world. For example, tweeting that you are going on holidays for two weeks could alert criminals that your house will be empty.  Also location based services used in social networks can identify where you are to those with bad intentions.

4. Choose a strong password for your account to prevent someone else from accessing it. Do not share that password with anyone else and if you think someone else knows it change it immediately. 

5. Always log out of your account when you have finished using the site, especially if you are using a public computer or one you share with other people. There’s no point choosing a strong password if you stay logged in to your account – that makes it easy for people to access your personal information.

6. Don't post what you don't want others to know. The Internet never forgets and anything that you post online, whether you make it private or not, could become public at a later stage. 

7. Never click on links or install applications that are sent to you via messages that you are not expecting.  Criminals will use links or applications to install viruses on your computer and will often send them to you via messages.  They will even hack into accounts of people on the social network, including your friends, and use those accounts to send the links to you. These links often promise interesting videos relating to a current news item, celebrity or someone doing something really strange/funny.

8. Get your friends and family to have a look at your social networking sites to check that you aren’t giving out too much personal information or posting inappropriate photos/films because they might see something you’ve missed.
9. Respect yourself and others online.

10. If you are unlucky enough to have a bad experience online report it to the service provider and tell others about it. Cyberbullying is NEVER acceptable. If you or someone you know is targeted by bullies online, make sure that you tell someone about it.

Further advice on protecting your privacy on social networks

Here are some useful sites to visit:

• GetSafeOnline - Safe social networking
• Microsoft safety and security centre - 11 tips for social networking safety

In the same way as the telephone, the internet allows people from all around the world to chat to each other. Online, the easiest way to do this is in a chat room.

Chat rooms are effectively real-time conferencing or conversations using technology. Using the keyboard, a virtual group of people with the same set of interests can easily communicate together. The group setting differentiates them from instant messaging which is primarily used as a one-to-one communication.

Some are purely text-based with people typing what they want to say, and others include graphics and photos to make a visual chat room. In some chat rooms an audio experience is included so people can hear what others are saying too. In addition, the use of webcams has started to be introduced.

Although some are patrolled, most adult chat rooms are not moderated and users can only be encouraged to follow the rules of conduct. These help to maintain the safety of users. There are other more specific rules for children’s chat rooms. There are some general well-known codes of conduct that chat room users should follow, for example, caps on means shouting, flooding the screen with repetitive text is not allowed and there is usually no advertising permitted.

Chat rooms can be great places to learn new things, have fun and interact with interesting and inspiring people from across the world. However, the dangers of chat rooms are well documented, particularly when it comes to children who often love the social aspects of chat rooms. People are strongly advised to do some basic research first and to follow some key online chat room safety tips before using a chat room.