Keep It Private!
You wouldn't put up a sign outside your house with all your personal details on it, so why make them available to all on social networking sites?Did you know that if you don't restrict your privacy settings, the whole world can see your Facebook profile, view your pictures and even see what's on your wall? Have you ever stopped to think what the consequences might be of giving out lots of personal information about yourself to people you don't know?
If you've never given it any thought before, you're not alone. Many people don't realise the level of information they are giving away freely on social networking sites and some aren't even aware that there are privacy settings.
Aside from suffering from potential embarrassment (would you really want your mum or your boss to see all those photos of you?), you could be making yourself vulnerable to crime - fraudsters welcome such an open invitation to your personal details - while children's information could be used by sex offenders.
What Can You Do To Keep Safe?
Take time to review your privacy settings on any social networks you use - you will be able to specify exactly who can see your profiles, photos, status updates and other information. We recommend restricting your profile information to only be seen by people you actually know.
For example, in Facebook, you can alter the settings by clicking on the 'Account' menu in the top right of the screen and selecting 'Privacy Settings'. You can alter who sees each bit of your Facebook profile and posts.
It's good practice to check back every so often to make sure that your settings haven't changed - often when social networks update their privacy settings, they will default to allowing everyone to see everything, no matter what your settings may previously have been.
You can find out more about Facebook's privacy settings at: www.facebook.com/help/?page=419
Get Click CEOP
Another great way to stay safe is to install the ClickCEOP browser bar from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency (CEOP). This gives you instant access to internet safety advice directly from within your internet browser.
The browser bar is available for:
You can also install the ClickCEOP button directly onto your Facebook profile to help your children report anything they don't like directly to CEOP. 
Follow the link below to get the ClickCEOP app for your Facebook profile and keep yourself safe online.
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