Such popular social networking sites like Facebook, My Space, Orkut (if you are Brazilian or Indian- they have a lot of users) and the like have become immensely popular in the past several years.  Like any good thing there is often a dark side that comes with it, or grows out of it.  If you watch the news you will hear about young people being the victim of some pervert, or lured into a bad situation under false pretenses.  For example, a 40 year old guy pretending to be 18.  I have no problem with these sites, my problem lies with the people who intended to do harm to anyone just wanting to use this technology for fun.  Since I don’t have an “S” on my chest, the best I can do is offer some advice so you can have a safe-surfing experience. In short here are some basic strategies for college age students to consider:

• If someone is creepy, weird or just flat-out bizarre, block them.  I am a big advocate of keeping your profile private.  When it goes public, everyone (read as the population of this planet) can see you.
• Pay attention to what you post.  Pictures have a way of coming back to haunt you.  Before you post think long term and ask yourself a question- will this come back to haunt me?  If you are not sure, go ask a trusted adult for their opinion.  I realize this sounds incredibly stupid and uncool- but their experience can help.  They can examine things from the view of a perspective employer.  Sexy photos may not be too well received by someone who is hiring.  And yes employers will do a background check on you- including taking a peek at your profile.  It’s public remember?
• Consider keeping things hard-wired.  WI-FI is cool and convenient, but secure it is not.  Even if you have security enabled (WEP key, WPA or WPA 2 for you geeks) anyone with  a sniffer can hack you.  Think about it.
• When you see a cell phone- think camera.  If you are in a say, compromising situation (or position) my guess is someone may want to take a picture to either embarrass or black-mail you.  I would suggest you do not let this happen.  Once the photo is on their camera, what are they going to do with it.  If they are not nice and post it on line- too late.

In closing, think before you act.  I know that sounds contrived but being an IT trainer, I have seen technology used for good and bad and have exposure to what happens when things go wrong.  The old phrase an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is quite relevant when surfing on line.