Basic Cyber Safety

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General advice

Use a generic and non identifying email address

  • Your friends and family already know your full name.
  • Using your name in your email address may give online ‘friends and ‘contacts’ access to more information about you than you want.

Keep your passwords private

  • Your best friend does not need to know your passwords to anything. 
  • If you share your password others can pretend to be you online.
  • Make your password hard to guess – use a mixture of letters, numbers and symbols.

Keep your computer security updates up to date.

  • Ensure you have properly installed up to date anti virus and firewall software on all computers that use the internet.
  • Install all updates for any software you use as they become available. This will help keep your computer safe from online threats as they are identified.
  • Consider subscribing to the free Stay Smart Online Alert Service at www.staysmartonline.gov.au

Keep your private details private.

  • Do not post personal information on the internet. 
  • Don’t publish your date of birth on the internet.
  • Don’t publish your home, work or school address – your real friends and family know these details.
  • Think before publicly accepting invitations to events – it can let people you might want to avoid know where you will be.

Social Media

Limit identifying information

  • Keep information about your private life including school, work place, club memberships and your location to a minimum.

No mobile phone details

  • You don’t need to put your mobile phone number on your online profiles; your friends and family already have it.

Lock your online profiles and photo albums

  • Don’t let people you don’t know or trust have access to your photos – remember everything posted on any website can be copied, emailed and saved.

Check your online profiles regularly

  • Check what others have posted or written on your profile. Someone may have posted something inappropriate or you think is offensive on your profile.
  • Check you are happy with everything on your profile and delete anything you don’t like.
  • Block anyone who posts inappropriate or offensive content.

Get permission before posting a person’s photo online

  • Never post a photo of a person anywhere online without their permission; it may be an invasion of their privacy.
  • If a person asks you to remove a photo make sure you do.

Think before you post or reply

  • A comment posted in the heat of the moment or when distressed may be something you regret later.
  • Avoid getting into arguments online.

Think before posting photos

  • Remember what you post today may haunt you tomorrow - potential employers often check social networking profiles to assess possible future employees.
  • Think about what and who are in any photos you post. 
  • Avoid having identifying information in photos such as workplace, school or sport uniforms.

Report abuse

  • Report any abuse, harassment, bullying or inappropriate content to the website, and if necessary to the Police.
  • If you become aware of any friends or relatives who are having problems with harassment, bullying or inappropriate content being placed online, report it.
  • Schools and the Police take online abuse, bullying and harassment very seriously - so make sure you report abuse.

Useful websites

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