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Internet Safety

Here are a few tips that you can use to help increase your safety online:

Maintaining Privacy

  • Many different social media platforms have various privacy settings, which help to limit who can see your posts, your profile information, and at times, even your location.

  • Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Snapchat, and even texting apps like WhatsApp all have privacy settings which can be changed, as well as methods for blocking accounts you want to avoid interacting with your account.

  • Without changing these privacy settings, many social media platforms will automatically share posts publicly, or share your location with friends.

  • Despite changing privacy settings, unwanted people may still have friends or other accounts in order to try and look at your social media posts and interact with you, because of this, it is important to ensure that you know everyone who is following you on your social media.

  • Advise your friends, family and followers not to share your private posts with anyone you are afraid of, or do not know. This is also why having a private account in addition to blocking anyone you are afraid of is the best and safest course of action.

  • Enabling two-factor authentication can help to prevent people from getting into your accounts; ensure that the phone number or email attached is not one that other people have access to.

  • Dial *67 before making a call to block your number.

  • Call your cellphone company to have you phone number unlisted.

  • Ensure that your location is turned off on your cell phone, car, and other devices, including work devices.

  • Change your passwords if you think that someone may have access to your account or may be able to easily figure out your password.

  • Set an anonymous voicemail message or have someone else set one for you.

  • Avoid sharing information on social media that could inform people of your location, or places that you frequent. This can be things as minor as posting your coffee at a local coffee shop once a week, or as large as “checking in” somewhere on Facebook.

  • Avoid sending intimate photos on social media, people can save those, show them to others, or even post them publicly. If this happens to you, contact police, and ensure that you report the photo to get it taken down.

  • If you are a child below the age of 18, sharing your intimate photos online constitutes distribution of child pornography, which is a crime. If someone else below the age of 18 sends you an intimate photo, sharing that with others is also a crime.

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Keeping Children Safe Online

To Do:

  • Ensure that your child meets the minimum age requirement for any social media they are on.

  • Ensure that you have created the correct privacy settings for those social medias, including those that restrict what children can see, such as YouTube kids and TikTok.

  • If your child is posting, make sure that their posts are private and can only be seen by people they know and trust.

  • Keep younger children on your devices, rather than their own. This way, you can monitor their activity without them feeling as if they are untrustworthy.

  • Forcibly looking at your child’s devices can feel invasive and can make your child lose trust in you. Instead, try having them include you in their social media time, such as watching YouTube, or scrolling through TikTok or Instagram together.

  • Building and maintaining trust with your child is important, if they feel they are safe to, they may come to you if something unsafe is happening.

  • Educate your child on internet safety. Ensure that they are aware of dangerous situations that can occur online, signs to look for, and how to stay safe online.

  • Look out for sudden changes in behaviour within your child. If they suddenly change behaviours or become secretive with you regarding their devices, something may be going on.

  • Pay attention to who your child is spending time with, and how those people behave. People guilting, threatening, or excessively gifting your child may be trying to groom them.

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How To Disable your phone’s location

Android

Swipe down from the main screen and click the “Location” icon. If the icon is blue, this means your location settings are on, meaning you are sharing your locations in certain apps. If the icon is grey, your location settings are turned off for all apps.

OR

To turn off location settings for individual apps:

  • Open up your “Settings” application.

  • Click the “Connect” option.

  • Click “Location” option and turn off settings for each individual app.

 

Apple

To turn location settings off completely, or for individual apps:

  • Open up your “Settings” application.

  • Click the “Privacy” option.

  • Click “Location Services”. Here you can turn off location services completely by clicking on the toggle, which will turn it grey. If location settings are on, the toggle will be green. You can also click on individual apps and adjust their location settings independently.

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Links and how to guides for staying safe

Facebook

 

Instagram

 

TikTok

 

X (Formerly Twitter)

 

Snapchat

 

 

Resources

For Adults:

 

For kids:

  • Kids Help Phone (call: 1 800 680 4264/ text: 686868) - 24/7, national support service. We offer professional counselling, information and referrals and volunteer-led, text-based support to young people in both English and French.

  • Cybertip.ca - Canada’s tipline to report the online sexual exploitation of children; to report non-consensual image sharing.

  • NeedHelpNow.ca - helps teens stop the spread of sexual pictures or videos and provides support along the way.

  • Youth Against Violence Line (text: 604 836 6381) - province-wide, 24/7, multilingual resource that provides confidential assistance to young people affected by youth violence or crime.

  • ProtectKidsOnline.ca - helps parents/guardians stay on top of the digital world their children are engaging in.

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Find more information:

Media Smarts: Interactive Games

Media Smarts: Online Workshops

Victim Services Toronto Resource

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