[Mhiz Rebecca]

Across board, staying safe on social media entails using
a strong and different password for each of your social
media accounts, the longer it is the better. Security
answers are better if they are two factor authentications
as provided by most social media sites. With friend
requests, selectiveness is key, if you do not know the
person, do not accept their request, as it could be a fake
account. Click links with caution because social media
accounts are regularly hacked. Look out for language or
content that does not sound like something your friend
would post.
You can go a step further and take charge yourself by
pass wording your device, being careful about what you
share, ensuring you do not reveal sensitive personal
information like home address, financial information or
phone number. Protect your computer by installing
antivirus software, as well as ensure that your browser,
operating system and software are kept up to date. It
helps to be familiar with the privacy policies of the social
media channels you use and customize your privacy
settings to control who sees what.
WhatsApp
More specifically, on WhatsApp, you can block contacts
from sending you messages without quite deleting their
number from your phone. It is said and proven that the
easiest way to avoid a particular caller is to save the
number, now you can also block them on WhatsApp and
enjoy continued peace of mind. Images can also be kept
at bay by sliding off the automatic download button. This
particularly comes in handy when you are trying to avoid
sordid images.
The platform providers however implore users to “Watch
out for messages that include misspellings or
grammatical mistakes, ask you to tap on a link, ask you
to share your personal information like credit card and
bank account numbers, birth date, passwords, etc., ask
you to forward the message, ask you to click on a link to
“activate” a new feature or say that you have to pay to
use WhatsApp, WhatsApp is a free app and we will never
ask you to pay to use WhatsApp and you do not have to
do anything to use WhatsApp for free.”
If a suspicious contact manages to scale all these
hurdles and gets across, WhatsApps recommends, “You
can also report a contact or a group as spam from their
profile information by opening the chat, tapping on the
contact or group name to open their profile information,
scroll to the bottom and tap Report Spam.”
The platform summarily offers users control; “You can
set your last seen, profile photo, status to; everyone,
which shows your last seen, profile photo and status to
all WhatsApp users. My Contacts, would show your last
seen, profile photo and status to your contacts from
your address book only while Nobody would not show
your last seen, profile photo and status to anyone.”
Instagram
This majorly picture sharing social media platform says it
works hard to keep Instagram a safe and enjoyable place
for everyone, as the app managers implore users to use
tools they have built and the best practices they have
defined to help users stay safe on Instagram.
They provide that; “If someone is sharing photos or
videos that make you uncomfortable, you can unfollow
or block them. You can also report something that you
feel violates our Community Guidelines right from the
app. Make sure you know whether your account is public
or private. When you set your posts to private, anyone
who wants to see your posts, followers or following list
will have to send you a follow request first. If someone
is bullying you, reach out to a trusted family member or
teacher for help. You can also remove a comment from a
photo you’ve shared and report bullying and harassment
through the Help Centre. Make sure you’re comfortable
letting the photos and videos you share represent who
you are to a wide audience, such as your parents,
teachers or employers. Never agree to do something or
share anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
On the safety page of the platform, most of these words
are hyperlinks, they are blue coloured and lead you to
where you can carry out actual action for your safety.
Facebook
On Facebook your name, profile and cover photos,
gender, the networks you belong to and your user name
are always available to anyone who wants to see them or
does a search either on Facebook or through a search
engine.
You cannot change this but you can restrict your posts,
these are pieces of information, jokes, events, shared
links that you choose to put on your timeline and your
photos to different audiences. Remember if you choose
Public everyone can see what you are talking about
including people you do not know.
Here, Facebook is particular about privacy settings and
enlightens users thus; “Your privacy shortcuts give you
quick access to some of the most widely used privacy
settings and tools. Click the question mark icon at the
top of the page, then click Privacy Shortcuts to see
shortcuts that help you manage: ‘Who can see my stuff,
who can contact me and how do I stop someone from
bothering me?’ This is also where you will find the latest
privacy updates and other helpful tools. The shortcuts
you find here may change over time to reflect the
settings and tools that are most relevant,” Facebook
says.
Twitter
Generally, when using Twitter, think twice before adding
your location to tweets, consider stripping Geotag info
from your photos before you tweet them, enable
Twitter’s privacy and security options, keep personal info
out of your profile and remove any 3rd party Twitter
Apps you do not use or recognize.
The ambit of Twitter’s safety tools spans, photo tagging
which keeps other users from tagging you in photos.
One on hand, tagging photos makes them more social
but on the other hand, maybe you don’t want personally-
identifiable photos of you tagged on Twitter.
However, it is good to note that Twitter is public by
default, which means anyone can see and interact with
your posts. Protecting your tweets puts your profile on
lock so that that only those you approve will be able to
see what you tweet, this keeps suspicious users from
accessing your posts.
For people finding you, deselect Let others find me by
my email address and phone number. Your email address
and phone number are hidden, but as Twitter puts it:
“The settings let people that already have your email
address or phone number find you on Twitter or on
third-party services that have integrated with Twitter.”
Turning it off means third parties, spammers and
marketers won’t be able to see that private information.
Deactivate direct messaging, remove any contacts that
have been stored in Twitter and delete location
information.
Long story short, staying safe on social media requires
far more effort than simply being on it or being reckless,
nonetheless, these steps can be taken to protect the
vulnerable and make online predators powerless.
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Source: Vanguard