Every parent’s “talk” with their kids should start with “Never say or post anything about yourself on the internet, in any capacity, that you wouldn’t want literally everyone in your life knowing about. Assume everything you type, post or share will be seen by everyone.”
I would extend that to include even uploading things to private cloud servers and saving things to your own computer. You don’t have to take these precautions, but then it’s on you to deal with consequences of people seeing the things you want to keep private. Sure, there can be bad people who make extra effort to find and share your private things, but if you already covered your bases ahead of time by not saying things you don’t want others to hear, not posting media you don’t want others to see, you can make it almost impossible for people to cause you harm this way. Also, don’t talk about war plans in group chats.
edit: if you’re one of the kinds of people who read this and feel a reaction of outrage or disappointment that you can’t contain, this means you’re sharing things you shouldn’t and are now getting worried you won’t be able to make yourself out to be a victim when it happens. Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t make these rules, you just never heard them before. Fix your shitty social life and shitty sense of humor.
I have had this exact talk with my kids repeatedly and probably will again ''the internet is a PUBLIC place, if you wouldn’t do or say things you wouldn’t be comfortable doing in the quad at school or in the middle of Walmart, DON’T do it online."
Every parent’s “talk” with their kids should start with “Never say or post anything about yourself on the internet, in any capacity, that you wouldn’t want literally everyone in your life knowing about. Assume everything you type, post or share will be seen by everyone.”
I would extend that to include even uploading things to private cloud servers and saving things to your own computer. You don’t have to take these precautions, but then it’s on you to deal with consequences of people seeing the things you want to keep private. Sure, there can be bad people who make extra effort to find and share your private things, but if you already covered your bases ahead of time by not saying things you don’t want others to hear, not posting media you don’t want others to see, you can make it almost impossible for people to cause you harm this way. Also, don’t talk about war plans in group chats.
edit: if you’re one of the kinds of people who read this and feel a reaction of outrage or disappointment that you can’t contain, this means you’re sharing things you shouldn’t and are now getting worried you won’t be able to make yourself out to be a victim when it happens. Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t make these rules, you just never heard them before. Fix your shitty social life and shitty sense of humor.
I have had this exact talk with my kids repeatedly and probably will again ''the internet is a PUBLIC place, if you wouldn’t do or say things you wouldn’t be comfortable doing in the quad at school or in the middle of Walmart, DON’T do it online."
You are officially ahead of like, half the people in this post, and your kids will be too.