Safety must be your priority at any cost! Female teenagers are at a high risk of online abuse in unknowingly enormous forms.
According to the Data Reportal along with We Are Social & Hootsuite, 'In the initial months of 2020, more than 3.8 billion people had their accounts on social media giving space to cybercrimes.'
According to Facebook data, 'About 30 million of the Indian users are on Facebook, henceforth the threat of getting physical abuse among female teenagers in India is at its peak.'
The total ad spends done by social media in 2017 was around $35 billion, out of which 16% was on digital ads. These heavy advertisements and temptation have led to more and more account creation every next hour increasing the threat to female teenagers online.
Want to safeguard yourself from unwanted online media threats? Let's help every other female teenager by discussing the escaping ways from such panicking situations.
Unheard Stats and Facts
- As revealed by the Library of Congress blog, 'Twitter witnesses more than 50 million tweets each day. All of these tweets are saved as a copy in a library folder digitally which might be further used as a mode of personal information storage.'
- At least 1 out of every 6th woman is stalked throughout her life according to the - 'Centers for Disease Control.'
- The immaturity of Facebook users has risen from the last 5 years to date, there are almost 5 million-plus accounts opened on Facebook under the age of 10 years old who have violated the terms and conditions of Facebook.
- As per the University of Surreyone, researchers - Bromium and Dr. Mike McGuire, stated that around $3.25 Billion in revenue each year is generated by social media cyber crimes globally.
- As per PhishLabs, in 2018, the cases of online abuse for female teenagers increased by 200%.
How to use social media safely, tips for teenage girls?
1.Keep your location hidden
Location...is the easiest way to track your current residential area, which furthermore can invite scammers, rapists, and even teasers to your home!
Social media threat is done to female teenagers might toward to -
- Loneliness
- Questioning self-worth
- Depression
- Anxiety & Stress
- Health Concerns - Mental & Physical both
- Lack of confidence
- Fear of getting raped and bullied
- Anger Issues
- Sleep Disorders
Female teenagers must avoid sharing their locations with strangers and keep their location button off at all costs. Female teenagers must make sure to avoid sharing their location while downloading an application, browsing on the internet, and logging in for any of their existing social media accounts.
2.Use strong passwords
According to the researchers, - 'More than 70% of the female teenagers are prone to social media threats leading to personal information leakage which further spoils their image in the public eye.'
Make sure you follow the protocol of setting the strong passwords like -
- Using strong delimiters at least once like $, #, @, %, &, *
- One capslock letter must be there
- Use small letters as well
- Use the strong number in the password
- Never use your date of birth, Nickname, main name, signature word, family member's name, etc which are too easy to guess.
Combine all of the above tricks to create super-strong passwords that aren't easy to hack.
According to the Facebook data compilation, - 'QWERTY is the most used password by the female teenagers by almost 60% of the strength.' Make sure you never use this password.
3.Switch to Incognito mode
Make sure you operate all of your social media accounts on the safer mode while operating on other devices like your friend's computer, print out shops, schools, colleges, etc i.e, incognito mode which doesn't save the browsing history.
This hack will make sure that your passwords aren't getting hacked by a third party.
Also, never save your passwords even on your system such that if somebody hacks your screen he/she still won't be able to check your history.
4.Add only known ones
It might sound good to have millions of followers or friends added on your social media but….think twice!
According to Facebook data, 'More than 80% of the female teenagers have felt the social media to be unsafe because of adding the unknown people who used to threaten and harass them ultimately.'
Getting tons of friend requests on social media especially Instagram, Facebook isn't a big deal for a female teenager.
According to one of the surveys on female teenagers, 'People randomly scroll and send requests to girls, but 40% of them are either there to destroy your image by collecting your personal information or are the sex predators.'
Be sure to report the profile as soon as you feel harassed by some sort!
5.Avoid using hashtags
HASHTAGS..seems cool, right? But, do you know it can create a web of personal attacks for you? How? These hashtags usually increase your visibility on social media. Due to this, the closeness to fraudulent activities like fake account requests, and social media abuse rises for female teenagers.
Use hashtags only when it's required & not on your every post.
6.Take note of available privacy policies
Due to the lack of knowledge, female teenagers often skip the step of safeguarding their entire profile via private policies already set by the social media applications like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
In these social media apps, you will find multiple options to protect yourself from getting bullied -
- Blocking option
- Review your activity section
- Manage the location settings
- Face recognition option
- Passwords code generator
- Double verification option via security code and a question
- Who all can send you a request
- Locking your entire profile and the display picture
- Blocking/Muting messages & calls
- Sharing options - private, public, and only me
- Getting alerts for logging from unrecognized places or browsers.
Ipsos MORI, Amnesty International Survey Results
A survey was conducted for 502 women from Australia, falling under 18 to 55 years of age -
- Around 47% of the females faced social media bullying between their age of 18 to 24.
- Every 3 women out of the 10th women faced social media harassment.
- Around 37% of females revealed the fact that this social media abuse made them feel threatened and worried about their safety.
Australian Online Female Abuse Data - IMAGE BASED ABUSE
- Almost 24% of the women are at risk of image-based abuse in comparison to the 16% of men. This 24% fall under the age group between 18 to 24 years.
- Almost 15% of the female teenagers of 18+ years of age are forced to share their nude and sexual images online forcefully in comparison to men which is 7%. Females are twice as likely to get under this trap than men.
- Female teenagers who have spoken a language other than English, almost a fifth of them, have faced image-based abuse.
Social media seems to be highly attractive and fun...till the time you have to pay the cost for using it via your privacy! More than half of the US population is tempted to create their online space via social media sites through active participation. Ultimately, everybody wants to make business… you at the cost of your private information is helping such sites to grow each day. Make sure that with fun and learning, you as a female teenager ain't compromising on your safety and personal data.
References
https://www.indiandigitalclub.com/11-social-media-safety-tips-for-women-in-the-digital-world/
https://www.esafety.gov.au/women/know-facts-about-women-online