Children may be unaware of their own safety on social-networking sites. Although parents may feel outpaced by their technologically savvy children, there are steps parents can take to make networking fun, but safe.

Discuss privacy
Adolescents may think only their friends can view their private information. While privacy settings on social networking sites can be established, if a child befriends someone he or she trusts, that person would also have access to the child’s information. Certain information, such as social security numbers, addresses, birthdays, or account numbers should never be made public on a site.

Talk about sexual predators
The Internet allows sexual predators to use social networking sites to target victims. Parents should inform their children to ignore friend requests from individuals they don’t know.

Remember that online information stays in cyberspace
It’s very difficult to delete information once it has been shared; there is always a digital record. Even when a child removes himself or herself from a social networking site, it’s likely that his or her information is still stored in a database.

Don’t post any information you wouldn’t want everyone to see
Social networking sites are not private places. A larger audience may see language, photos and other information. What’s more, some social networking sites make limited profile information available to advertisers and marketers.