6 Tips for Social Media Safety

More than likely, nearly everyone you know is on one social media site or another. You may have a spouse on Twitter, a best friend on Instagram, and maybe even a grandparent on Facebook. These sites have become almost essential parts of our lives. We often find ourselves scanning social media, reading breaking news, and staring at our various devices for hours out of the day, and while social media can amuse us, distract us, connect us, inform us, improve us, and help us, the reality is that it can also harm us. Social media safety should be something we all consider.

As I’m sure you are aware, there has been discussion in media about the recent release of a purported ISIS hit list. I understand that, for some of you, this may be a very concerning event, and while I do not want to fuel fears about this event, I do want to help you feel more prepared and informed about the best ways to keep your family safe. As a result, we at Army Wife Network thought this would be a good opportunity to share some best practices regarding safety on social media.

Also, note that every branch of the military  and the Department of Defense has published guidelines regarding OPSEC (operational security) and PERSEC (personal security). It is always wise to familiarize yourself with these guidelines, and implement them in your home and with your family.

In addition to these resources, consider the following six social media safety tips:

1. Use the security settings on social media.

Most social media sites have revamped their privacy settings to give you multiple options regarding who sees your posts. Check your settings regularly, and where appropriate, use the highest levels of privacy available. You may think you know who is seeing what you share, only to find that total strangers actually have access. After you update your settings, you can run a simple safety check by doing a Google search of your own name or family. If your posts still appear there, your social media is not secure.

2. Regularly update your friends lists.

Everyone should ensure that the only people that can see your information are people that you truly know. Did you know that you can sort your friends list? You can label each person by a friend, close friend, acquaintance, etc. and ensure they only see what you choose. Additionally, it’s important to make sure you verify the identities of those who try to add you. It isn’t difficult to create a fake social media account. One way people try to capitalize on this is by stealing someone’s profile picture and creating a new account under the same name. They send friend requests to all of that person’s existing friends, making it look like your friend is creating a new account. Once you accept them, they have access to all your information. If you see a new request from a friend, tell them. Sites like Facebook are setting up new firewalls every day to protect our information, but we need to be diligent in protecting ourselves as well.

3. Consider what you share.

We seem to give a lot away about ourselves with things like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. While we like sharing about the cool vacation we have coming up or how we’re attending the school play tonight, it seems like we may be staging ourselves for disaster. I like to put up all my special events after they’ve occurred. I don’t want people knowing that my house will be empty at any certain time. I also don’t post anything about deployments, field problems, or anything specifically related to the military.

4. Beware of geotagging.

Sites like Yelp and Foursquare encourage you to “check-in” at certain locations, often in exchange for some sort of reward, but by using that feature, you’re also alerting those on your social media pages to your exact location at any given time. However, geotagging can be even less obvious. Many of us have phones with built-in GPS or location services. Geotags can be embedded in your photos, which, when uploaded to a social media site, can give a hacker instant knowledge about the exact locations where you and your family live and play. This article explains just how much can be revealed through geotags.

5. Pay attention to how your kids use social media.

I recently had a friend tell me she overheard her 12-year-old daughter having a conversation with her friends. They had been having a contest to see who had the most friends on Facebook, and her daughter was bragging that she had more than 800, though Patti was pretty sure her daughter didn’t know that many people. After the other kids left, Patti had Anna open her Facebook, and sure enough, there were 800 people on it. However, the truly scary part was that, of those 800, there were more than 600 that she didn’t personally know, almost all of them were foreign, and they were adults. Kids are easy targets when it comes to personal information because they love to share details of their lives with their friends, including details about their lives and about the military. In this case, Patti alerted her husband and they went to see the security guy in their unit, because there were some potentially very harmful people who were following their daughter, thus jeopardizing the entire family’s security.

6. Remember that what you put on the internet stays on the internet.

The internet is nothing like Vegas (although time does seem to disappear on there). There is no such thing as a temporary post. Often even the information you think you’ve deleted can still be accessed if you know how to look for it. So be thoughtful about what you add to your Facebook page or your Instagram account. Even if it doesn’t risk your personal safety, is it something you would want your future employer or grown children knowing about?

Social media isn’t bad (unless you’re at work or school and using it to procrastinate). Sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter are great ways to stay in touch with family and friends, and they can be a fun distraction. However, when you choose to enjoy these sites, be safe. Don’t invite trouble into your computer or your life.

This link offers a free class that will teach you about safeguarding your information and social networking. Get educated about the risks, and take the necessary steps to protect yourself, your children, and other members of your family on social media, then help get the word out to friends and relatives so they can learn to protect themselves, too. There’s no need to live in fear of social media, but there is a great need to learn to use it wisely. The safety and security of you, your family, your service member, and your friends is more than worth the extra effort.