How to stay safe online

There are lots of ways you can protect your safety online.

Here are 5 ways to get started.

1. Keep your information private

You can keep your information private by:

• setting your internet and social media accounts to ‘private.’ You can ask someone to help you do this in the ‘Settings’ options of your accounts
• only posting and sharing things online that you are OK with anybody seeing
• not putting personal information online, like your address and phone number
• only accepting messages and friend requests from people you know
• using the private internet browser. This is also called ‘incognito’. It doesn’t save any of your internet history. In most internet browsers you can turn incognito on by clicking ‘File’ at the top of your internet window and choosing ‘New Private Window’ or ‘New Incognito Window’.

2. Use passwords that people can’t guess easily

All online accounts need a password.

You need to use different passwords for different accounts.

Use a password that people won’t be able to guess easily.

You should write down your passwords and put them somewhere safe.

3. Report things that seem wrong

If something seems wrong, you need to report it.

Something wrong can include:

• emails asking you for money or your personal information
• messages threatening you to do something
• someone stealing money from your online bank account.

You can report it to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission SCAM WATCH website.

4. Search the internet safely

It can be hard to know when a website isn’t safe.

You can try to avoid sites that are not safe by:

• staying away from websites you
  don’t know
• putting a program on your computer
  to protect it
• getting support from the people at your local library.

Download the eSafety Easy English book: Being safe online to learn more about searching the internet.

5. Be careful paying for things online

Shopping online is very easy to do but it is important to be careful.

You should:

• only give your bank details or credit card details to websites that you trust
• always log out of your online shopping account when you are finished,
  like eBay

try not to pay for things online using direct bank transfer. Try to use an online banking website like PayPal instead.

Download the eSafety Commisioner’s Easy English guides to staying safe online to learn more about staying safe online.