Social networking sites provide a free and easy way for users to communicate with one another. Popular sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo encourage users to create an online profile, which can include as much personal information as they like. Online profiles often include the user’s full name, contact details, school, favourite leisure activities, photos, videos and blog entries.

Essentially social networking is a lot of fun and when it is used appropriately it can be a safe and easy way to keep in touch with friends. However hidden dangers can lurk, especially for vulnerable young people.

A recent Ofcom study reported that young people often feel invincible when it comes to social networking sites. The report found that more than a quarter of children aged 8 to 11 routinely bypassed age restrictions with the result that they were able to access websites that exposed them to dangers and inappropriate activity. Furthermore, a recent Central Scotland Police study found that, through social networking sites, a worrying proportion of teenagers had exposed themselves to identity theft, online grooming, drug dealing activities, violence, weapons, racism and sectarianism.

No one can deny that social networking sites carry huge benefits, but only when they are used responsibly and safely. Young people need to be made aware of the potential dangers and educated as to how best to avoid them.

Simple measures that young people can take to protect themselves online include:

• Never use your full name or give away personal details such as messenger ID, email address or mobile phone number.
• Do not give away too many personal details in blogs – if it’s not something you’d be happy to tell a stranger in the street, you shouldn’t include it in your blog.
• Protect the information you post online by configuring your privacy settings. For example, many social networking sites allow users to block other users from saving posted items, such as photos, onto their PCs.
• Keep passwords safe to stop others from hacking into your profile.
• Do not accept friend requests from strangers – people can create very genuine looking fake profiles to gain access to other users.
• All sites have a forum administrator. Users can report any abuse or harassment to them and it will be dealt with.