Be social, stay safe on the internet!

Friday 26th February 2010

Volunteer Kirsty blogs about staying safe and helping out online

Hi I’m Kirsty, PeerLink Volunteer,

Internet Safety Week took place at the beginning of February and campaigns such as ‘Click Clever, Click Safe’ were launched to highlight the need for children and young people to stay safe online.

The internet is a great tool for learning and communicating. I have friends and family around the world so I use social networking quite a lot to keep in contact with them all and see what they’re up to. Also as my friends and I are all very busy at the moment so we catch up online. We have private group conversations where we arrange get-togethers as then everyone in our group can see it and chat when they have a spare few minutes.

What we have to remember though is that nothing is really private on the internet. If you post a lot of personal information or embarrassing photos potential employers or people who have something against you may see it on your profile and use this stuff against you later on.

Also it’s a good idea never to accept friend requests from strangers or put too many contact details (phone numbers etc.) on your profile. You don’t know if everyone is telling the truth online so you may end up in serious trouble if you meet up with a stranger from the net.

We’d like to hear from you about how you like to keep safe online but also any experience you have of using the internet in a positive way for resolving conflict, e.g. helping friends solve their differences through Facebook? Giving someone advice online about how to solve their issues etc.? advice youv’e got from the internet about resolving your own conflict?

Look forward to hearing from you!

thanks

Kirsty