How often do we not feel safe in the social world? How often does the fear of finding ourselves in uncomfortable situations in the internet world keep us awake at night? Now it’s enough, it’s up to us now !

How do we protect ourselves?

To stay safe on social media it takes very little. To protect ourselves from hackers, the ideal thing is to change passwords often and, when we choose one, elaborate a combination of numbers and letters rather than simple words (especially those that have to do with us, such as family names or important dates for us). We must also be wary of profiles of strangers who ask us for friendship, and, more importantly, pay close attention to what we publish.

Benefits of keeping a respectable online profile

To keep a respectable profile on social networks, it takes very little: pay attention to the links shared by message, often change passwords always using different words, signs, characters, and numbers. In addition to this, with regard to public posts, it is important to remember that whatever is published will remain forever on the virtual platform; just think that if you search for your name and/or nickname on Google, they are uploaded in the “Images” section.

Consequences of posting inappropriate content on the profile

Publishing inappropriate content on your profile is risky. The protection of ourselves is the main key to being able to live peacefully, having a social profile: now the media are associated with freedom of speech and thought, but it must be remembered that not everything must be said without filters and, above all, not everything must be shown. The most important rule is respect for others and above all for ourselves.

How can online actions do without thinking to affect the people around us?

Even with only a tweet, you can ruin an entire company for example in 2014 the US airways found itself having to deal with a colossal crisis because an employee accidentally shared an inappropriate image on the company’s Twitter profile. By publishing information about our friends and family we can subject them to cyberstalking.

What is the fingerprint and why is it important?

The fingerprint consists of the personal information we share on social networks (personal data, tastes, positions, images), which are collected in a digital dossier, to which the social network has access and all those to whom it decides to sell it. It is important to be aware of this element, since these data are used for, mainly, personalized advertising, but there is always the risk that they end up in the hands of criminals.

What can you do to make sure everyone in your school is taught how to use social media properly?

We could publish our work in the school newspaper so that everyone can read it. We may also organize meetings with experts, who directly and clearly explain the importance of online security. In the various classes of the school, the stories of those who had problems on social networks could be told, to help to avoid the new generations to avoid making the same mistakes, helping them to avoid stumbling in dangerous situations. We could create and print flyers designed by us, where we briefly explain (using short but fundamental and incisive sentences) the importance of security on social networks, then give them to students at the school entrance or simply hang them on the walls of the school building so that everyone can read them. These flyers could also be posted on the school’s social profiles or on its official website, in this way they could be viewed and read by both students and parents.

You know someone who’s had a bad experience on social media, what did he learn from that experience?

At my old school, there was this girl who, like all the boys at that school, had decided to create her own Instagram profile. She published everything there especially photos of hers even with her friends and family. I’m not sure why, but one day she was targeted by some guys. At first, it wasn’t very serious just a few giggles behind her back. But as time went on things got worse she was constantly being teased and not only by bullies but by almost the whole school. However, she didn’t want to delete her Instagram profile until one day some people found out her profile password and logged in. So they start posting embarrassing pictures that they took secretly so this girl decides to changed her password and then deleted her profile. I think she had learned from this experience how dangerous social media can be and understood the importance of having a secure password.

Laura Amico

Valentina Calovi

Caterina Detassis

Ikram Dari

Nancy Demattè