We never buy newspapers in our house. We do watch the news everyday. But I hate trawling through the paper to find what I’m interested in reading, so we just don’t bother. Anyway I’m sat round the Grandparents, Moo & Megan were catching the end of Free Willy (Moo loves this film!), Daddy Moo was helping Granddad cover the allotment in manure … nice! (Oh and Grandma was putting the kettle on 😉 ) I took full advantage of a chill out moment picked up The Sun Newspaper and tutted through the first few pages of ‘smut’, he said she said …. argh boring! Until I stumbled upon … a very interesting article about Facebook. This wasn’t actually about Fanpages, which you know I love to chat about, but about the security aspects of profiles.
Whitelegg states the following as his 10 Commandments
- Date and place of birth
- Mother’s maiden name
- Address
- Holidays
- Short trips from home
- Inappropriate photos
- Confessionals
- Phone numbers
- Children’s names
- Don’t post a full public profile.
I’m not going to quote all the information attached to the 10 Commandments set by IT security expert Dave Whitelegg so please do go and check them out here online see you don’t need to buy newspapers to keep upto date.
Some of the points were a bit .. well obvious! I wouldn’t post my phone number and address, mother’s maiden name, when I’m on holiday, short breaks I try not to as I am aware I am shouting “hey I’m out!”. As I run a lot of my business through Facebook and I’m a mother of two small children I have untagged or removed any inappropriate photos, not that there were many! My profile isn’t public and I keep my language clean but I’m not naive enough to think that many people probably just don’t see the risks Facebook can hold. I was shocked by some of the blasé comments people have made online too about their settings and not seeing the problem.
As social networking grows and so does our involvement it is only inevitable that our children’s will too so isn’t it important to maintain our own knowledge and understanding. I recently posted a comment on my Fanpage about ‘facebook places’ … I know there is an equivalent on Twitter too. I was shocked by some peoples comments whereby suggesting that people who moan are those who don’t have iphones. I do think you have to be careful about who your contacts are when you advertise on Facebook that your at Ikea with your other half when Ikea is an hours drive away.
As always love to hear your thoughts.
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Lovely article, mostly common sense but sometimes we all need a reminder! Thank you 🙂
Hi Joanne
As Louisa mentions it is ‘Common Sense’ unfortunately is NOT common practise.
A lot of kids growing up today have never known a world WITHOUT Social media, Smart Mobiles etc. We live in a world were quantity of social media seems to equal success rather than Quality.
As well as inappropriate comments that can come back and haunt you (future Jobs, comments on Photos) it can also lead to more severe consequences, ID theft or Burglary (whilst in IKEA enjoying your meatballs).
We have a responsibility to educate our children on the importance of personal information security and maybe give feedback to our ‘friends’ on Facebook who are doing the very things we wouldn’t do ourselves.
Regards
Darren
Dear Joanne, thanks for this. I am always deeply concerned when I see photos of children on FB and details about their likes and dislikes as I used to work in Child Protection. Unfortunately when people do this they are do not seem to realise how they make their children vulnerable.
I do have pictures of my children on FB but I do also have my privacy settings set so that only my friends can see them. Plus I am selective about who I am ‘friends’ with I get requests everyday but I normally point them over to my fanpage.
Very interesting and yes lots of common sense but great to send reminders. I was away for two weeks recently and was itching to comment on my holiday but knew it would be an open invitation to burglars! I talk about my granchildren who I love dearly but we never put their pictures up. I share them with my friends in less public ways.
I never take newspapers – cant abide reading depressing news which is how they fill most of them.
The Facebook term ‘Friends’ often lulls people into a false sense of security. Are people really friends with 100’s of people, in a way that they would want to share family photos and personal information? Do they really know all these people? Most often they have never even had a real life conversation with them (outside of FB) let alone even met them. As Darren says, “Thou shalt not…” is common sense. Not common practice.