Creative Guide for Teachers & Parents

SUBJECT & DISCUSSION IDEA #3 - Do you know who your friends are?

It's not unheard of for people to join social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo and create a profile for themselves, only to discover that someone has already created one. It's just one way fraudsters are using the Internet for hurtful purposes.

If a real-life friend asks you to be a friend online, the simplest way to make sure that friend is who they say they are is to ask them in person. The next time you see that person, make a point of mentioning his or her profile. Chances are, your real-life friend is your online friend. But it never hurts to ask - you never know, you could be doing your friend a favour.

Be cautious - online you really can't be 100 per cent sure of who you're talking to. So, if your online friends have little or no connection to you in the real world, always use caution. The more real-world connections you have with an online friend, the more confident you can be in sharing information with that person. So, while you can be confident in sharing your vacation photos online with your real-life best friend, you might want to think twice about sending those photos to the friend you made at tennis camp last summer, or the friend you met through another friend while chatting online.

Discussion idea:

How can you make sure your friends are who they say they are? Be a sleuth. Talk about how you can investigate your friends' profiles. Does one of your friends have two brothers - but, online, she only mentions one? Could this be a fake profile? This exercise could help you weed out some fakes - or maybe you'll simply learn a few things you never knew before, like how much one of your friends loves cheese fries and old video games!