Student+Safety


 * 1) **Never reveal your personal information online.** Why not? Sometimes people aren't who they say they are on the Internet. What is personal information? Your full name, address, city/location, the school you attend, your picture, names of your relatives, places you hang out. Basically, any information that can be traced back to you personally should not be posted online.
 * 2) **Set your profile to private**. Only "friend" people you know IRL (in real life).
 * 3) **Keep your password secure.** Use a password that is difficult to guess, like a combination of upper and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers. Don't use your phone number, address, nickname or pet's name for a password. Don't share your password with anyone, not even your best friend.
 * 4) **Don't arrange meetups with people you only know from online**.
 * 5) **If something makes you uncomfortable, turn off your computer and tell a parent or teacher**. This could include websites with graphic content, a virus or spyware, emails/IMs from strangers, harassment, cyber bullying, or flaming in a chat room/message board.
 * 6) **Use antivirus, spyware blocker and firewall software**. This protects both you and your computer. Great free programs include AVG Free for antivirus, AdAware or Spybot Search & Destroy for spyware blocking, and Sygate Personal Firewall.
 * 7) **Don't open emails or attachments if you don't know the sender**. This includes spam and phishing schemes (where scammers "fish" for your account information).
 * 8) **Don't post anything that might embarrass you or anyone else**. Sure, your friends think the latest video you posted on YouTube is hilarious. However, what if it goes viral? Do you want the whole world to see you acting goofy?
 * 9) **Don't accept gifts or money from anyone online**. If you receive an email stating that you won the lottery, you didn't. Also, sometimes people give gifts or money and want something from you in return.
 * 10) **Use child-friendly search engines when doing research.** It's always a good idea to use search engines that are linked to your school's site.