{"id":4399,"date":"2019-03-29T20:54:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T20:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/?p=4399"},"modified":"2019-04-24T14:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T14:23:01","slug":"3-tips-for-staying-safe-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/blog\/3-tips-for-staying-safe-online\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Tips For Staying Safe Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s\u00a01:30pm and you are sitting in class. You receive a friend request from someone you don\u2019t know, but you accept it. What\u2019s the big deal?<\/p>\n

Later that evening you realize this new friend has been liking a lot of your pictures and posts, so you visit their account. After looking through their profile, you realize you have no mutual friends and there is not a lot posted on their account.<\/p>\n

While doing your research on this new friend, they send you a direct message asking how your day was and complimenting how you look in your pictures. You feel uncomfortable so you decide to delete this new friend.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019ll never happen to you, right? Your friends and followers are people you know, at least you think so. Instead, we should be thinking about how a situation like this could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A

Photo by Kelsa Katzfey ’21<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are three tips for staying safe online and how to avoid a situation like this happening to you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Set your account to private<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When your account is private,\u00a0people who do not follow you cannot see your content. By placing your social media account(s) on private, you can control who sees and interacts with the content that you are posting. You might feel a sense of security in knowing that your posts are being seen by only people that you trust and have approved.<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

2. Meet up in a public space<\/strong><\/h4>\n

If you decide to meet someone in person for the first time, maybe you met them on Tinder or Bumble, go to a public place with them. While in public, you are in a safe space to step away if you feel uncomfortable\u00a0at any point. Go grab coffee with this individual at\u00a0Mugby Junction<\/a> or Blooming Grounds<\/a>. Keep it simple, but safe.<\/p>\n

Letting your friends and family know when and where you are meeting this new friend is an extra step that you can take to ensure the best possible outcome. If the meet up is not going the way that you would have liked, you are not only\u00a0in a public space, but your close friends and family members are aware of your location if anything happens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Do your research<\/strong><\/h4>\n

When someone sends you a friend or follow request, check into them before accepting the request. Do the two of you have any mutual friends? Do they have a lot of followers? How many posts do they have? By answering these questions, you are analyzing\u00a0whether or not\u00a0this account is fake.<\/p>\n

Accepting\u00a0follower or friend requests only from those you have personally met can be a great rule of thumb\u00a0to make sure you have maximum safety on your profile.<\/p>\n

What do you do online to protect yourself? Do you take any precautions? Have you ever been placed in an uncomfortable position as a result of an interaction you had online?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to know\u00a0the\u00a0dangers that can happen online. If you have a story you would like to share about a similar experience you have had, stop by the gazebo on campus on Monday, April 1 from 10am – 12pm to talk with two representatives\u00a0who are spreading awareness about these dangers. Your story can be included in\u00a0a video project to spread awareness of\u00a0the\u00a0possible\u00a0dangers that social media may bring.<\/p>\n

– Co-written by Carly Sylvester ’20 & Erin Kloepping ’19<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s\u00a01:30pm and you are sitting in class. You receive a friend request from someone you don\u2019t know, but you accept it. What\u2019s the big deal? Later that evening you realize this new friend has been liking a lot of your pictures and posts, so you visit their account. After looking through their profile, you realize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":4405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[512,715,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social","category-wellness","category-wellness-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/46564369725_e3084b5c3c_o.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PQJv-18X","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4399"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4455,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4399\/revisions\/4455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}