Letter to the Editor: Clean Up Social Media Posting

To all users of social media

In this article I read in the Huffington post an expert lays out all the risks and concerns dealing with your private info on social media. He Robert Siciliano personal security and identity theft expert, can be found on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RobertSiciliano for similar content about personal security online.  

In the first half of the article. He talks about the risks of putting your info out there, the dos and do nots about posting; as well as how these bad posting and sharing habits we have ultimately lead to terrible things. Some examples include "Do not tell the world you are going on vacation! Or"... "You won’t be at your house for several hours, why would you let potential burglars know that you’re away?"(Huffington post) as well as "Before you post anything online, think about what a hacker, stalker, employer, or potential employer could do with that data. Could an ex, who’s fighting for custody, use the data against you in court?" (Huffington post), another example of bad sharing habits "informing the world that you just smoked a joint"..."one of the worst things you could do for your career, it also makes all your friends guilty by association"..."because after the age of 23, you ought to know better."

Then in the second half of his article he has a list of the steps, things to do to protect you and your family from the negative repercussions of not being safe on the internet. The list is very in-depth and a good majority of it is for parents on how to make sure children are safe while on line. And steps to take I encourage everyone to read it.

My message to all readers of this is simple. Let’s clean up our bad posting habits, let’s become more social media literate, let’s protect our children online and ourselves from the dangers of cyberspace.

Gage Edwards