Staying safer when using Facebook

 

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Staying safer when using Facebook

A graphic showing a warning sign next to Julie's Facebook News Feed.

What's coming up?

To keep your Facebook experience enjoyable, it's good to bear some key safety tips in mind and know how to deal with nuisance contacts or unwanted posts.

In this activity, we show you how to stay safer when using Facebook.

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A graphic advising to never share personal details on Facebook.

Things to avoid

There are some things you should never share on Facebook. These include details that allow people to find you in the real world or allow them to imitate you, such as:

  • your home or work address
  • your date of birth
  • your telephone number or email address
  • your financial details (e.g. your bank account number)
  • posts that reveal you're on holidays and your house is vacant. Even if you are only sharing with close friends on Facebook, you can't control who can see their News Feeds.

Messages from strangers

Be wary of Friend requests or seemingly friendly private messages or posts from strangers. Scammers are clever at getting people to divulge personal information about themselves, which they then use for identity theft or other scams.

It's best to either ignore or delete requests and messages from strangers.

An example of a seemingly innocent but scam message enquiring about where Julie went to school.
An icon of a padlock

eSafety Tip

If you receive a post containing a link from someone you don't know, never click on it. Simply ignore the post. Also, never click on documents or videos sent as attachments in Facebook messages – even from friends – as they may contain viruses. It's best to delete or ignore the message.

If you think it might be important, contact your friend outside of Facebook to check if they actually sent it.

Disagreeable Facebook posts

If you come across a post in your News Feed that you don’t like, whether it’s from a friend, a group or an ad, you can take action.

In the top, right-hand corner of the offending post, click on the three little dots ... to open the options menu. A list of options that you can select appears in a pop-up panel, including:

  • Hide post to see fewer posts like this.
  • Unfollow the person or group to stop seeing any future posts from them.
  • Find support or report post to let Facebook know you are concerned about it.
The options menu on posts that can be used to hide posts, unfollow friends or groups, report to Facebook and more.
The Manage blocking page allows you to stop seeing posts from nuiscance Facebook Friends and prevent them from seeing your News Feed as well as other ways to block unwanted content.

Blocking Facebook users

You may come across Facebook users who pester you or post material that offends you. You can easily block these users from your News Feed and from contacting you.

To block another Facebook user, click the downward arrow, on the top right, and select Settings. Then click on Blocking in the left-hand menu to open the Manage blocking page. This page contains a number of ways to restrict or block people, messages or posts.

An image of a padlock

Congratulations!

You have come to the end of the Staying safer when using Facebook activity.

You've learnt what information should not be shared, to be cautious when receiving posts or messages from strangers and how to manage your posts and friends.

The next activity, Connecting with others and joining groups on Facebook, will guide you through how to get more out of Facebook.