Staying safe while blogging
Staying safe while blogging
What's coming up?
If you're thinking about blogging, it's a good idea to know about ways to stay safer online whilst doing so.
In this activity, you'll learn how to guard your personal information, regulate comments you receive on your blog and take sensible online security precautions.
Start activityThe comments section
If you're open to feedback and constructive criticism, then the comments section on your blog can be a great place to share ideas and debate issues with readers.
Be prepared for negative feedback
There are some people, however, who like to bully others anonymously on the internet. These people are called trolls and they might leave unpleasant comments on your blog posts. It's best to ignore them rather than to reply.
Moderate comments on your blog
On Google's Blogger service, comments are published automatically, which means unpleasant messages can appear without you knowing, and offend your visitors.
Settings within Blogger allow you to change this, so you can moderate, or review, the comments first. That way, if you see anything unpleasant, you can just delete them.
Don't publish personal information
As a general rule, it's best not to provide your full name on your blog. You shouldn't provide details such as your home or work address or your telephone number either. You wouldn't reveal those details in a chat with a stranger at a bus stop, so don't publish them on the internet.
eSafety tip
Remember, unless your blog is private, it's open to anyone. However, even if it is private, there's still no need to put any of your personal or sensitive information online.
Don't list your email on the blog
Spammers are always looking on the internet for new email addresses. If they find yours on your blog, you're likely to receive more spam (or junk mail) in your inbox.
If you want a way for people to reach you with private messages, you can add a Contact section to your blog which forwards you their message without revealing your email address.
Use a unique password to secure your blog
If anyone discovers one of your passwords, they can try using that password to break into your other online accounts, including your blog. That's why you should never use the same password twice.
Instead, you should create a unique password for your blog that others will be unable to guess.
Creating a strong, unique password
A strong password will help secure your blog.
For a memorable password, try using the first letters in the lines of a song and your house number. For example, Mary had a little lamb might become MhAlL-45.
A strong password like this – using numbers and upper and lower case letters – can be easy for you to remember but would be incredibly difficult for someone to guess.
eSafety tip
See our Managing passwords course for more tips on strong passwords, and how you can use a password manager to help you stay in control of the many passwords we need these days. You can view it by clicking on the link below:
Stop blogging whenever you want
If you have second thoughts about blogging, it's okay to take a break for a while.
It's also easy to switch off the comments on a post, remove that post or even delete your entire blog if you think it's time to move on.
True or false?
Click each card to find the answer.
You may receive negative feedback from people on your blog. These people are called trolls.
Click to flip
This is, unfortunately, true. It's best to ignore people who are rude or who write negative things.
You can't delete any unwanted or negative comments once someone has posted them on your blog.
Click to flip
This is false. You can moderate what comments are visible and delete any that are unpleasant.
It's safe to publish your email address on your blog.
Click to flip
This is false. Keep your email address private so you don't get spam mail.
Congratulations!
You've completed the Staying safe while blogging activity. Coming up next, if you have registered and are logged into the Be Connected website, you'll now be able to take a short quiz to finish the Blogs - online journal course.
If you're not registered, you are now at the end of the course.
