Social Media Safety- Make Sure You and Your Family Are Protected
There may be many reasons that you and your family members have relied on Social Media to stay connected. With the possibility of more travel and other activities, it’s good to get a refresher on how to keep you and your family safe on social media.
Revealing information about your homelife, travel plans and daily habits can create an opening for crime to your home or family. Shrewd people posing as trusted neighbors may lure family members into crimes and scams.
Social media sites continue to open up the spectrum so that more people can see your information, which limits your ability to know that there is a trusted person reading your post or profile information.
Shouldn't Nextdoor be Safe and Neighborly?
Over the years, this neighborhood social media platform has become a mixed bag of helpful suggestions, unkind comments and dubious information. There has been a myriad of information being posted about political, safety and neighborhood topics that may not be factual or safe.
Also, Nextdoor continues to expand the “neighborhoods” so any generally posted information is being viewed into San Pedro and other locations beyond PVE and our local cities. Of concern, are posts that are looking for connections, services or selling things. Make sure you are extremely careful to vet these sources before revealing personal information or completing a transaction.
There have been posts that appear to be from a PVE location but there is a sense that they are not really a resident. It would be nice to trust the Nextdoor vetting process, but there have been verified stories of people establishing accounts under an alias, which is against Nextdoor rules.
Revealing information about your homelife, travel plans and daily habits can create an opening for crime to your home or family. Shrewd people posing as trusted neighbors may lure family members into crimes and scams.
Make sure you take action to keep you and your family safe.
Send us your tips at pvenwboard@gmail.com
Revealing information about your homelife, travel plans and daily habits can create an opening for crime to your home or family. Shrewd people posing as trusted neighbors may lure family members into crimes and scams.
Social media sites continue to open up the spectrum so that more people can see your information, which limits your ability to know that there is a trusted person reading your post or profile information.
Shouldn't Nextdoor be Safe and Neighborly?
Over the years, this neighborhood social media platform has become a mixed bag of helpful suggestions, unkind comments and dubious information. There has been a myriad of information being posted about political, safety and neighborhood topics that may not be factual or safe.
Also, Nextdoor continues to expand the “neighborhoods” so any generally posted information is being viewed into San Pedro and other locations beyond PVE and our local cities. Of concern, are posts that are looking for connections, services or selling things. Make sure you are extremely careful to vet these sources before revealing personal information or completing a transaction.
There have been posts that appear to be from a PVE location but there is a sense that they are not really a resident. It would be nice to trust the Nextdoor vetting process, but there have been verified stories of people establishing accounts under an alias, which is against Nextdoor rules.
Revealing information about your homelife, travel plans and daily habits can create an opening for crime to your home or family. Shrewd people posing as trusted neighbors may lure family members into crimes and scams.
Make sure you take action to keep you and your family safe.
Send us your tips at pvenwboard@gmail.com
14 tips to Keep Safe on NEXTDOOR & OTHER Social Media SITES
Make sure that you and your family are aware of best practices on posts and profiles in order to best protect ourselves from becoming a victim of crime or bullying. Take time to discuss the rules that you will implement in your family on managing your social media so that everyone is safe. Here are some best practices to get you started.
Keep your personal presence under cover:
Keep your personal presence under cover:
- Limit the personal information you post about your hobbies, location, address and other identifying information.
- Have your profile locked down so only those whom you want to see your information are able.
- Check your profile regularly, since platforms tend to change and open up visibility of your information.
- Limit the information you provide about your children.
- Don’t post announcements of upcoming travel or photos while you’re on travel. Post photos and info upon your return.
- Don’t post specific address information about crimes. Make sure crimes are reported to police first and then you can alert neighborhoods.
- If you are selling or buying, keep your information private until you have established a level of trust. Verify that you have contact information that is reliable in case you need to follow-up.
- If possible, do sale or meeting in a public place instead of your home. If you must go to a home or have it at your home, ensure you have a buddy with you.
- Not everything being posted is true or accurate. There are some people who have misinterpreted facts or have other agendas.
- Go to a reliable source to confirm information posted on social media.
- Provide posts that are kind, positive, uplifting and accurate.
- Consider only posting to PVE communities and not to all communities (applies to Nextdoor).
- Provide links or sources for the information. It’s nice to have a date in the title so it is easy to see when the post was made, especially if the post is date-sensitive.
- Report all crimes and suspicious behaviors to the PVE PD (non-emergency: 310.378.4211 or 911 for emergencies). They are unable to view information posted on Nextdoor and do not monitor other social media sites.
Other Resources for Social Media Safety
Here are some other sites that appear to be trusted organizations with helpful infomation: