Ever since the internet became widely available, online safety has sparked debate. We now often assume commercialization has made the internet “safer” when we may risk encountering scams, datamining, or dangerous people more than ever.
Story time: when I first joined ioCreative, I accepted a Facebook friend request from Tim (my boss) because I felt I had “nothing to hide.” But this experience reflects the new normal that employers vet social media, so we must consider what we post publicly.
The following tips are our internet safety guide for adults and children, divided between general tips, social media, and anonymous websites. We can protect our data, personal information, and wellbeing in this age where “everything that brain of yours can think of can be found.”
General Internet Safety
Protect your passwords
Most of us know that passwords should include uppercase and lowercase letters and at least one special character. All of us with bad habits like repeating the same passwords or using too-obvious phrases could stand to be more cautious, however.
(“Password1234” is a neon sign saying “I’m an NPC, hack me bro”)
Business solutions such as LastPass will save and encrypt passwords. Encryption is a must: “the cloud” just saves everything to a third server, so you assume responsibility for risks with server insecurities.
Cybersecurity bros say you can’t be “safe” with passwords, only “safer,” and to write them down physically.
Deprogram yourself from the algorithm and echo chambers
Social media are practically designed to keep you engaged with them (not visiting other sites) and with polarized arguments or “ragebait.” Seeking out new, positive experiences online becomes conscious resistance when you’ve followed algorithms and attention-grabbing personalities.
We recommend escaping echo chambers of polarized opinions by always checking facts from reliable news sources first. Even if it’s just pictures of cats, relearn how to search for online experiences you want before everything demanding your attention distracts you. And cliché as it’s become, “touch grass” (healthily make offline time every day) and the bad takes won’t find you.
Learn to recognize phishing, scams, and hacks
“Phishing” is how scammers may steal your name, email, passwords, Social Security number, or other identifying information. They may impersonate banks, online payment services, credit companies, or other trusted institutions emailing you to send this information. Hacks may threaten your computer security with malware. And since our friend the Nigerian Prince appeared, classic scams for your money have moved online.
You can recognize phishing emails when URLs mismatch the organizations they’re impersonating. Do not click – be skeptical of any request for information you did not initiate.
Remember: legitimate businesses, organizations, and government departments will never reach out and ask for your Social Security number, which you should only provide in transactions with the government (e.g. paying taxes). Legitimate websites will not ask you to update login information unless you’ve initiated a password reset. Unless you have a very interesting relationship, people you know won’t request these things either!
As for monetary scams: any “too good to be true” claim you’ve won something probably is (still awaiting that free iPod). Other scams are too bad to be true: be skeptical if they exploit fears of identity theft saying yours has been implicated in a crime and you must “act fast” without time to think.
The Federal Trade Commission offers a guide to spotting and reporting phishing scams.
Check every link before you click
Many of us “Internet Olds” learned not to click links blindly from a good old-fashioned Rickroll if not the more traumatizing “shock sites” (like this one). But sketchy links may include phishing or computer viruses.
Nowadays, you can preview links on hover in most web browsers. If you’re on a site sketchy enough to force popups or downloads on random clicks, consider exiting and delete any downloads without opening. Your computer’s security may thank you!
Learn to recognize AI and act accordingly (not parasocially!)
Our guide to spotting AI explains various “tells” that images, videos, audio, and text are machine-generated. As AI misinformation and machines’ accuracy rises, though, we must use critical thinking if something seems unreal or “too good to be true.” GenAI “hallucinates” misinformation constantly, so double-check factual claims with searches of reliable news sources before you believe or spread anything.
When you encounter GenAI, always remember it is a machine. It does not think or feel, and responses that seem “tailored to you” simply draw from a database of likely responses, but any information you provide it trains the algorithm and is no longer privately within your control. Keep your name, Age/Sex/Location, and anything else identifying out of GenAI prompts.
We have seen negative mental health effects of GenAI with news of “AI sycophancy” biasing results to agree with everything users say (even impossible or dangerous suggestions) and “AI psychosis” tied to deaths. AI is no replacement for therapy or human companionship: it can stunt personal growth when users let the machine think for them or isolate them. Its generated “advice” has no value as therapy. If you use AI at all (don’t) it should be as an idea-generating tool you can put down, not something guiding your mental health and life decisions. Remember: you can’t turn french fries into salad.
Social Media and Personal Apps
Know when and how to privatize your social media
As stated, everyone should know that employers vet social media. Many discover this fact without warning or never learn their curse-laden rants or photos from last night’s Animal House-style toga party are what’s turning employers away.
We shouldn’t always be “on the clock” performing our workplace persona. So you can set privacy through Settings on any platform. Settings may mean viewable only to friends, only to you, or delisted from search engines. To keep work and life truly separate, privacy can keep you posting freely.
Keep giving dataminers nothing
The dystopian reality is that social media serve hyper-targeted ads because the algorithms log your web browsing behavior. Algorithms can trap you in echo chambers of only hearing one opinion.
You can escape targeted searches, YouTube suggestions, and browsing history using Google Chrome’s Incognito Mode or its settings not to track your activity. Read the user agreements for social media platforms to learn what data they track from you and decide if you will keep participating.
You can’t avoid tracking altogether on social media, but you can limit the useful data you give away. Privating accounts, connecting only with people you know, and not posting about or interacting with products or brands can limit targeted advertising. Logging out can prevent platforms from tracking your other browsing activities, and ad blockers can protect your peace of mind from seeing everything.
Get offline recourse for cyberbullying and crime
Cyberbullying and cyberharassment typically involve people the victim knows personally. Children and adults should know they can report behavior to schools and workplaces by saving the messages (e.g. hyperlinks, screenshots).
When these behaviors or scams turn criminal, know that you can contact law enforcement. Your local police can handle criminal harassment by known individuals, the FBI handles reports on illegal materials, and the FTC investigates scams.
Check your platform’s content rules to report offending posts and get them removed. In select countries, you can have compromising information taken offline under the right to be forgotten.
Protect kids with parental supervision
Many parents wishfully think parental controls are sufficient to protect children. However, kids not only bypass these easily but learn to hide their activity from monitoring adults instead of confiding. Parents and children must instead share talks about online safety.
Websites commonly set minimum ages such as 13 or 18. Proposed laws to require age verification online have stirred debates about privacy rights. However, suggested minimums exist for good reason. Parents should teach children to follow guidelines, and use discretion about what age to use social media. Communication is key: if kids and parents communicate about sites they use and how to avoid sharing anything identifying, kids will feel safer reporting any concerning behavior.
Anyone you meet online can fake their age or entire identity. As lawsuits over predatory behavior on platforms such as Roblox show, child-oriented sites and games are not guaranteed safe and even attract abuse. The blame falls only on the system and those who abuse it, but communicating with youth about sites they use and how to spot danger can make prevention and reporting easier.
Sites such as Internet Safety 101 offer complete guides for parents.
Rediscover spaces for kids
In my generation nostalgic for Neopets, Poptropica, WebKinz, Club Penguin, and other “virtual world” games, we often observe the internet has fewer kid-specific spaces nowadays. Today’s games such as Roblox and Minecraft are typically all-ages and/or pay-to-play, so free and kid-specific sites or games have become rarer.
Parents can turn around stereotypes of “iPad kids” by teaching children how to find fun, educational games online. Sites such as Funbrain, PBS Kids, National Geographic Kids, and Neave can occupy time without the unmonitored social element. Many children’s authors have dedicated websites with fun activities: Seussville, Roald Dahl, and Jan Brett are favorites.
Verify anyone is who they say before you meet in-person
On social media, it’s become normalized to meet in-person with people you met online for a hobby, outdoor activity, date, or other purposes. Anyone can lie, however, and catfishers troll social media and dating sites to prank or scam unsuspecting victims.
You can verify a person’s identity by meeting over a video call first. Judge in-person meetings like any unfamiliar situation: you should be in public or otherwise free to contact family or friends, tell these contacts before anything more involved than a daylight coffeeshop meeting (such as hikes, public protests, or anything at night), and only go with upfront transparency about every location. (Politely decline car rides from anyone you don’t know well, short of group carpools.)
Generative AI has made verifying identities more difficult. AI voice scams impersonating trusted people have emerged, and video increasingly gets more convincing. (Experts advise the rule of “say something only we would know” like you’re in a scifi horror!) Our guide to spotting AI deepfakes explains the signs that video, audio, or text is machine-generated. If “your loved one” is calling you from jail or forgot the bank password, they’re probably SUS.
For kids and teens, parents should guide any meetings with online contacts. Always communicate with youth about who they meet online and verify the person’s identity yourself before arranging anything.
Keep dating to dating sites
Dating sites and apps follow typical safety rules: meet somewhere public, know that anyone can fake their identity, and avoid sharing info about your address, work, or routine until you’ve built trust in-person. Control your transportation and avoid excess drinking.
For these reasons, it’s safer to keep all online dating to these sites with safeguards rather than on social media or anonymous forums. Always set boundaries with online contacts as with in-person acquaintances, and share only the information or photos you wouldn’t mind sharing publicly.
Anonymous Web Communities
Keep your fully-online identity separate
We recommend a hard line against sharing your full name, location, photos, or other identifying information on non-social media websites. Peer pressure shouldn’t supersede privacy: why should anyone think you’re suspicious if they’re the ones expecting this info?
Sites such as YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, and Reddit border between “social media” and “not” because people either use screennames or identify themselves. Choose wisely: when you’ve given your name or face, only post what you wouldn’t mind sharing publicly “as yourself.”
Be more yourself online when (and only when!) you know it is safe
Conversely, anonymous websites can sometimes be a safer environment to share some personal information than offline or on social media. The internet can be a “voice for the voiceless,” as activists attest for people of color, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, and other marginalized identities or political minorities.
On anonymous websites, share information or beliefs you wouldn’t offline if and only if you have found a supportive community and have guarded identifying information.
“Don’t read the comments and don’t feed the trolls”
“Dance like they’re watching you, because they are watching you,” says the song “Don’t Feed the Trolls” by internet icon Jonathan Coulton. “Trolls,” once just offensive personalities seeking reactions for amusement, were easier to avoid feeding back when everyone was not watching. In the age of ragebait, trolls now feed on us.
“The only winning move is not to play” when anyone posts something so false or inflammatory it’s probably not in good faith. Do not engage and give them the interactions they seek. This includes when they approach you, always a risk when putting yourself out there, but it only takes blocking and ignoring to protect your peace and leave them yelling at the wall.
Block, ignore, and ghost any negative influences
Block features on anonymous websites is your friend when anyone harasses you or makes posts you’d rather not see. There’s no point engaging in good faith with strangers who show none, and curating your feed will improve your experience. Life is too short to internalize the bad takes!
“Ghosting,” or cutting off online contact, gets a bad rep in relationships that continue offline – and most interpersonal conflicts have better solutions. But in fully online communities, you owe nothing to strangers and they owe nothing to you – and many will act like it.
Entire online communities can be toxic: cults, political extremists, and pro-eating disorder communities are examples. When you encounter negative ideologies, needless drama, or environments where people fear questioning the status quo or leaders, remember “you can leave!”: whether by ignoring, blocking, or deleting your accounts, there’s no shame in hitting the bricks.
Leaving is the best prevention, but if you become entrenched in toxic online communities, remember you can search the web for support resources and ways out.
Stop doomscrolling and protect your mental health
Protecting your mental health is a safety tip when “doomscrolling” (refreshing feeds for bad news) paralyzes us into inaction and negative mentalities. The internet has created expectations and means to know all news, but the world keeps turning when we aren’t spiraling with anxiety from looking at it 24/7.
We can stop doomscrolling through mindfulness steps. Limit your social media use to a set time of day and/or amount of time, and/or set times to disengage. That means “touch grass” with outdoor time and seek websites or social pages for interests outside the negative echo chamber.
Resist any idea that tuning out from sharing means you don’t care: when a story matters, learning it attentively through reliable news sources over reacting on social media will leave you better-informed and less stressed. No matter what anyone says, nothing online demands your response.
With these tips, you can keep the web working for you.
