Social Media can mean a lot of different things, for some of us, it could be Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Facebook, or some other platform. These services allow us to connect with people across the world, family we can’t see very easily, news consumption, and many other things. Over the years social media consumption has skyrocketed. For instance, according to Pew Research, as of 2021 72% of the American public use some type of social media and people between 18-29 that increases to 84% of that age group. As we can see, social media is become an integral part of the American way of life. While this brings great opportunities to grow, learn, and prosper it also can introduce risks to ourselves and our loved ones.

This month, we are going to highlight some tips and guidance for yourself and your families to safely use social media to minimize risk and maximize the

benefits it brings.

Facebook

• Configure multifactor authentication:
• https://www.facebook.com/help/148233965247823

• Review your privacy settings:
• https://www.facebook.com/help/1297502253597210

• Change the settings of who can add you as a friend to avoid unwanted requests.

• https://www.facebook.com/help/217125868312360

TikTok

• Turn off ‘Suggest Your Account to Others.’ This will keep your account from being featured on TikTok, which attracts random users from finding you.

• Turn off ‘Video Downloads’ of your TikTok videos:

• https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/exploring-videos/video-downloads

• Set direct messages settings to ‘Followers that you follow back and people you sent messages to’ limiting direct messages to only people who you follow,

and they follow you back instead of random users on TikTok:

• https://support.tiktok.com/en/using-tiktok/messaging-and-notifications/direct-message-settings#6

• Configure multifactor authentication:

• https://www.makeuseof.com/tiktok-enable-two-step-verification/

Instagram

• Review your privacy settings:

• https://help.instagram.com/116024195217477

• Configure multifactor authentication:

• https://help.instagram.com/1124604297705184

General Tips

• Avoid sharing your daily routines. Giving away too much information such as ‘daily 6am workout’ tells stalkers or thieves where you are and that you’re not at home.

• Avoid sharing photos while you’re on vacation on social media. This alerts everyone that you’re away from home. It’s best to collect photos on the trip and post them in a ‘photo dump’ when you get back home.

• Avoid sharing sensitive information about yourself online with things such as your driver’s license. For example, posting your driver’s license online (whileexciting for first time drivers) can be used immediately for identity theft and more.

• Only accepts ‘friend’ or ‘connection’ requests from people you know. People hide behind fake accounts and those might be used to defraud you, organizescams, or run catfishing schemes.

• If possible, avoid sharing sensitive information such as your actual birthdate. Instead, use a random date instead of freely provided this information on yoursocial media profiles.