How much do people really know about you?

Many times students don't realize the personal information they post can be a link to identity theft. On websites such as Facebook and Twitter, students give information such as birthdays, including year born, school attending and hometown. This information gives cyber predators the opportunity to steal personal information. Students need to be aware who they are sharing their information with and use the proper privacy settings to deter cyber predators.

Allowing students access to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, lets them connect with friends, but these sites ask for personal information in which kids feel they have to answer. How do we teach these students that sometimes answering these personal questions can pose a real danger to their well-being? We need to inform them that there is a real threat to how much information is too much. Predators seek out children because of their vulnerability. They look for kids that post a lot of their personal information because it gives them complete access.

What effect does this pose on children and the school?
The use of Facebook and Twitter affects the students and their schools because of the text they include in their posts. Many times students can post things that can be detremental to the school environment, therefore, possibly ruining the school's reputation. Also, their personal information they provide gives predators a known location of where to find them and weakens the security of the school.

I believe we need to make sure that students are not allowed to post the school they attend on their pages. This will ensure the students remain safe while at school, and possibly make it more difficult for a predator to find them by location. Since many children go to schools in the same neighborhoods in which they live, predators have an easier time finding them if their schools are listed. Also, nothing detremental about the school can be posted if they are unable to mention their school by name. This will ensure that the school can be able to keep safety procedures in tact without having to worry about the possibility of internet predators looking for students.


Check out this article: http://personalweb.about.com/cs/securityprivacy/a/311toomuchinfo.htm

Some tips: http://www.safechild.org/internet.htm



Thoughts?