Staying Safe on Social Media.

My business has been a partner of the Be Connected Network for some time. It’s important to stay safe online and it’s important that our Seniors can easily understand technology and to do so safely. I wanted to write a quick article today about staying safe on social media - with tips for yourself and tips for others.?

Statistics suggest more than 50% of Australians log into Facebook at least once per day.?

Statistics collated by socialmedianews.com.au show the following distribution of Facebook users.

Facebook Demographics in Australia

Age Bracket ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Number of Users*

13 – 17? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 940,000

18 – 25? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 3,500,000

25 – 39? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 6,100,000

40 – 55? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4,100,000

55 – 64? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1,600,000

65+? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 1,200,000

*approx numbers of total users, not all necessarily active over the last month

Source - https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-september-2021/

The increase in users was accelerated across the pandemic. An increase in social media usage has lead to an increase in scams and an increase in attempts to steal people's personal information (in order to steal their identities.)

With this article we wanted to share a timely reminder of the types of things you shouldn’t share on social media publicly. (Some of these things are okay to share if your privacy settings are set up correctly.)

Holiday Details - You may be excited about an upcoming holiday, especially at the moment. (Restrictions have just eased significantly in Australia.) But you need to be careful how you share your good news. If you share information about your travel plans publicly, it’s like you are giving an open invitation to criminals to come over to your house and steal all your possessions. Make sure you have set up your privacy settings on your account so that personal information like your travel plans is only shared with people you know and trust.?

Identifying Details of yourself - Have you seen an image on Facebook where it says something like “the last 3 digits of your phone number is your ticket into heaven” or “Your Mother’s Maiden Name and the Street you grew up in are your superhero name” or something like this? Some businesses or pages that share posts like this? are not doing so deliberately but others are using it to harvest data to steal people’s identity. Don’t answer these questions.?

Information or identifying details about others - I’ve seen people inadvertently risk others without meaning to. They have the best of intentions but can cause unintended consequences. I’ve seen people share credit cards, medicare cards and drivers licences in local community groups - without hiding key information. This can be used by others for credit card fraud or, potentially, identity theft. If you find someone’s cards, don’t post them on social media. Take them to your local police station.?

Posts that could negatively impact your workplace or another organisation that you are a member of - Don’t vent. Just don’t. Posts online go viral - usually when you don’t expect it. You never know when someone might take a screenshot and use it against you.?

As I mentioned in the introduction, we support Senior Australians as part of the Be Connected Program. We also offer regular 1-1 training and courses. If you are interested in finding out more information - either for yourself or for someone in your family, please get in touch today.?