We are all use to seeing adults clicking on link bait and other links either on Facebook, Twitter, or on a separate webpage. If adults are prone to clicking those links imagine how vulnerable our children are.

Online there are many things happening and all of them are attempting to catch our attention; from marketers trying to make you buy something to cyber criminals trying to get at your information.

Facebook

On Facebook, people create enticing headlines that sound shocking to pique people’s curiosity into actual clicking a link. I have seen titles from “Look at what happened to this Girl when her dad caught her on the webcam doing…” others are more graphic material such as a newscaster having a wardrobe incident and exposing herself. I guess most people that fall for into ads to a deserve getting some kind of a repercussion. Why would you want to watch someone else’s terrible situation?

Facebook Safety Tips:

• Don’t on click on images that might look strange.
• Keep your kids away from surveys that might be collecting information on your kid.
• Don’t accept friend requests from other adults and strangers overall.
• Don’t give out you location or where you will be visiting or home address.
• Restrict the wall of what others can post on your kids wall.
• Monitor the pictures and images that are posted on your kids account.
• Scan your kids Facebook friends to identify any discrepancies.
• Take a look at your kid’s conversations with others.
• Have them remove their Birthdates from the profile.

Twitter

On twitter we have those strange DM’s or mentions with a link from someone you probably have never chatted with on twitter. Thankfully I see less strange DM’s these days but every once in a while one pops up that looks strange. Over the years of using twitter, I have found a formula that works for me when choosing to open a link without compromising my security.

Twitter Safety Tips:

• Don’t Follow everyone that follows you back.
• Set up a Search on Search.twitter.com with your kid’s username so you can monitor conversations that are going on in twitter.
• Monitor your kid’s conversations and what he is sharing via twitter.
• Make sure your kids Bio does not give out location of where they are located.
• Make sure geolocation on tweets is off so every tweet sent does not track where you sent it from.

There are many other tips for other platforms and some that apply to all. If you have a few tips or tricks that we can all use, feel free to share them in the comments area. We will gladly add them to the list.

photo credit by cheezelsmurf