Negotiating social media space

However, with the opportunities to connect, there are also opportunities for people to abuse these platforms and pose danger. While Vodacom Color is offering more opportunities for social networking, with its R29 Color UR Friends bundle that gives users 100MB of data for use on these sites, along with 100 SMS, this youth brand encourages users to be responsible and practice safe social networking.

Safety tips

• Don't give out too much personal info. Avoid sharing things like your home address, phone number and ID number.
• Identity theft is a very real threat, made easier with the array of social media platforms. Cyber-sleuths can also steal your passwords and shut you out of your own accounts, so make sure you use the privacy features on the platforms, and share your info only to friends.
• Don't let peer pressure or what other people are doing on these sites push you into doing something you're not comfortable with. Just because other people post their mobile phone number or birthday, doesn't mean you have to.
• Pick a user name that doesn't include any personal information. For example, "joe_capetown" or "jane_26_jozi" would be bad choices.
• Set up a separate email account that doesn't use your real name and use that to register and receive mail from the site. That way if you want to shut down your connection, you can simply stop using that mail account. This is very simple and quick to do using such providers as Hotmail or gmail or Yahoo! Mail.
• Cyber bullying and cyber stalking are a growing problem online. Cyber bullies/stalkers attack their victims by sending hateful, threatening messages or more. It's important for you to tell someone that you trust if you are feeling uncomfortable or are being threatened and you can also report these people to the police.
• To protect your passwords make up nonsense passwords that are a combo of numbers, symbols and letters. Also try to use different passwords for different accounts.
• Although some people think that the more friends they have the cooler they are you should be careful about accepting friend requests from people that you don't know. Not everyone will be honest about who they really are, so only add people as friends if you know them personally.
• Be careful what you post online - it's not just your friends that check out your profile. Your parents, teachers, employers and potential employers could use your profile to snoop, so don't post anything that may put you in a compromising position.
• 'Stranger danger' applies online just as much as it does in the real world so be wary of meeting up with online friends. Do some research about them by asking your friends if they know the person and do an online search to dig up background info on them. If you do decide to meet, choose a public place during the day and ask a friend that you trust to tag along. Also make sure that someone knows where you are going.
• Some people choose to post pictures or video's of themselves showing a lot of skin, kissing, or doing other 'sexy' things. It may be something innocent that you want to share with friends, but again, remember that it's not just friends that are looking at your profile. You don't know who is sitting at the other end of the computer screen and what they are thinking when looking at your photos and videos.