10 Ways to Stay Safe on Social Networks

1. Don't overlook the privacy settings. The default settings can be surprising. It is not automatically private. Be careful with what you leave for the world to see. Do you really want everyone in the world to have access to your address? Your phone number? Do you want everyone to see the photos of you at "that party"? I did not think so. Take a careful look at the settings you have set for the world to see.

Before you set something public, ask yourself, "Would I really tell a stranger sitting next to me at a bus stop this information?" If the answer is no, don't do it. When in doubt leave it private!

2. Don't leave you full date of birth on your profile. Doing this makes it easier for identity thieves to steal your information. With this information it is easier for them to gain access to your bank account or credit cards. If you want people to be able to see your birthday, just put your day and month, not the year.

3. Don't mention that you are not going to be home. For example, don't write things like, "Going on vacation from May ___ to May ___, can someone watch my dog?" Criminals often scan social networks for things like this. That way they can break into people's houses when nobody is home. You wouldn't hang a sign in your window saying that nobody is home, so don't do the same thing on Facebook or some other social network.

4. Use a strong password. Some of the weakest passwords are:

"password"
"123456"
"password1"
"(Your Birthday)"
"(Your Name)"
"(Your Anniversary)"
"(Your Favorite Animal)"

These passwords are really easy for people to crack because they are obvious. Using a single world is not a great way to make a password. The best passwords are the random letter, numeral and capitol letter combinations such as, "34DK45eiy49dFKGge9". These are very hard to guess. Also, you can use a word as you password, however, instead of just having the word, put some numerals in-between the letters: "monkey" can become, "mo23nk453e35y76". This is a hard-to-crack password. Using a proper password can instantly make your social network account a lot more secure against intruders.

5. Don't add people as friends that you don't know. It can be tempting, however there are a lot of strangers out there and accepting everyone as your friend can be dangerous.

6. If you would not show that photo to your boss or a young child, don't post it on Facebook or any other social network. A lot of people don't realize the importance of this. Social networks are, despite their privacy settings, accessible to a lot of people. If you would not show something that you want to share on Facebook to your boss, don't bother posting it on Facebook.

7. Don't let your children use Facebook unsupervised. Facebook members must be over 13 years old, however don't think that there aren't younger people children using it. If you have a child who has a Facebook account or another social network account, become friends with them so that you can keep an eye on what they are posting. What they think is nothing can really be pretty serious. As Yahoo says, "For example, a child who posts the comment "Mom will be home soon, I need to do the dishes" every day at the same time is revealing too much about the parents' regular comings and goings."

8. Change your password often. Even if you have a super complicated password, it is still possible to have it cracked. If you change your complicated password often, people won't have enough time to try to crack it before it's changed again. Also, this will help you if you are in the habit of letting your friends use your social network account. If you change your password often you will have more control over when they use it.

That's 8 things that you can do to keep your Facebook and other social network accounts safe, your personal information safe and your children safe. I'm not guaranteeing that your accounts are now bulletproof, but if you follow these tips you are sure to have a safer social networking experience.