Short messages on Online safety issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
Abraham Lincoln never sent any of his hot letters. You can use his method to constructively deal with emotions until you’re calm, instead of dealing with what you’ve posted socially in haste.
Internet trolling is often done as a sport, for fun, to see how people will react. Trolls get their excitement from opposing reactions which they can escalate.
An internet troll is someone who anonymously posts comments on a website that are either unrelated or purposefully designed to incite strong emotions in the reader.
In the United Kingdom, contributions made to the Internet are covered by the Communications Act 2003. Sending messages which are “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character” is an offense whether they are received by the intended recipient or not.
If someone has acted inappropriately online towards you or someone you know, you can report it directly to CEOP. It could be sexual chat, being asked to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or someone asking to meet up.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is part of UK law enforcement and can apply the full range of policing powers in tackling the sexual abuse of children.
Online passwords of 10 or more characters are realistically safe from a brute-force attack. Use letters, numbers and symbols, and not names, words or patterns.
Online Banking passwords should be different your passwords for e-mail, facebook, forums etc – if someone gets hold of it you need to be able to limit what they can do to just one function.
Be aware that comments and pictures posted online will be read in years to come by people including new friends, family and employers. If in doubt, ask yourself if the public should be seeing it.
Content that violates the Facebook Terms may be removed from Facebook and (in some cases) be subject to legal or other action. The person reported is not notified of the identity of the person who made the report.