Think before you Post
“THINK BEFORE YOU POST”
This is really the golden rule of online communication. Online communication is instant, wide-reaching and difficult to retract, so you need to be sure you want it out there before you put it out there. A couple of seconds re-reading your post, thinking about the photo, or running the worst-case scenario through your head can save you a lot of real-life pain. The only person you can trust to keep your private photos private is you. Once you send them to someone else, they're out of your control and you're relying on the discretion and good judgment of other people to stop them ending up on every phone at school or on a public site. If you don't want everyone to know about it, don't post it. Once it's out there, it could be there for life.
THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU HIT SEND, UPLOAD, AND POST:
If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't post it on their wall.
Emoticons are everywhere for a reason. It's hard to convey your tone of voice – how you are saying something – online. Comments that are meant to be sarcastic, witty, tongue-in-cheek, funny, even constructively critical, all rely a lot on context and can be easily misinterpreted online. Read it back before you post it and if it's not really clear, try again or hit delete and consider speaking to the person on the phone or in person instead.
If you think your friend might be embarrassed by that photo from your party, check with them first before you post it.
Just to briefly take it to the next level, if police see evidence of illegal activity in a film or in photos on a website or a mobile phone they can use it in court as evidence.
It's important to think about how much information you're sharing with strangers. You wouldn't stand in the street and hand out cards to everyone with your name, your photo, your address, school or university and favorite band on it – don't do the same thing online.
You need to be especially careful if you have several sites on
This is really the golden rule of online communication. Online communication is instant, wide-reaching and difficult to retract, so you need to be sure you want it out there before you put it out there. A couple of seconds re-reading your post, thinking about the photo, or running the worst-case scenario through your head can save you a lot of real-life pain. The only person you can trust to keep your private photos private is you. Once you send them to someone else, they're out of your control and you're relying on the discretion and good judgment of other people to stop them ending up on every phone at school or on a public site. If you don't want everyone to know about it, don't post it. Once it's out there, it could be there for life.
THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU HIT SEND, UPLOAD, AND POST:
If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't post it on their wall.
Emoticons are everywhere for a reason. It's hard to convey your tone of voice – how you are saying something – online. Comments that are meant to be sarcastic, witty, tongue-in-cheek, funny, even constructively critical, all rely a lot on context and can be easily misinterpreted online. Read it back before you post it and if it's not really clear, try again or hit delete and consider speaking to the person on the phone or in person instead.
If you think your friend might be embarrassed by that photo from your party, check with them first before you post it.
Just to briefly take it to the next level, if police see evidence of illegal activity in a film or in photos on a website or a mobile phone they can use it in court as evidence.
It's important to think about how much information you're sharing with strangers. You wouldn't stand in the street and hand out cards to everyone with your name, your photo, your address, school or university and favorite band on it – don't do the same thing online.
You need to be especially careful if you have several sites on