What information should be kept private?

• Your full name (first, middle and last) – instead use only your first name or an alternate spelling.
• Your date of birth.
• Your address.
• Your phone number. Never share your parents’ phone numbers either, even if something pops up on the screen telling you that you’ve won something.
• Where you go to school. Remember, when you share photos, people will know what you look like. If you also tell them what school you go to or post photos of you in your uniform, it’s very easy for them to find you.
• Your location. While it can be fun to check in to places, you’re then letting people – including strangers – know where you are. It’s also not a good idea to check in when you’re away on holiday, because then you’ve basically told people nobody is home at your place. Think about what information you’ll be giving people before checking in.
• What sport you play, as well as where you play and what time you play. Again, if you’re sharing photos of yourself, others will know what you look like, so they can go to your football, netball or soccer game and find you. It is also easy to find your sporting draw on the internet, which is why you shouldn’t reveal the name of your team. This is also true for other regular activities you may have, such as Scouts or dance.
• Think about your profile picture. Information doesn’t just come from words, it also comes from the pictures you share. Therefore, having an image of a landscape, animal or character may be a good choice for a profile picture. Remember that in many cases your profile picture is never private.
• Passwords. Keeping your password private is very important. Change it regularly and make it hard to guess by using capital letters, numbers and symbols.
• Relationships you have with others online. Often, when sent a request, if we are unsure of who the person is, we look at their profile to see if they are friends with someone we know. If you accept their request without really knowing who they are, they will have access to all of your information. If your friend also gets a request and sees you are ‘friends’ with them, they are likely to accept it even though neither of you actually know the person. So always check there is a real relationship first.
• Consider what constitutes ‘private’ information. This could be any details you wouldn’t want to share with people you don’t know well or at all, such as secrets, confessions and embarrassing content.

How can I protect my security?

• Keep your mobile phone locked (and the passcode or password safe and private) so others can’t grab it, unlock it and use it when you’re not looking.
• Only give your phone number to people you know for sure you can trust.
• Use secure web browsers with ‘https’ at the start of the URL.

Don't forget the location settings!

Many social networks allow you to check in each time you tweet or post an update. It might seem like fun for your friends to know where you are, but it can mean that people you don’t know can also see where you are, especially if your profile isn’t private.

To turn off your location settings on Twitter, click on your profile picture at the top right-hand side, scroll down to ‘Settings and privacy’, then to ‘Privacy and safety’ on the left-hand side, then untick the checkbox that says ‘Tweet with a location’. You can also press the button that says ‘Delete location information’, to clear information about where you’ve been in the past. You can also turn your location off on your actual mobile phone.