Social networking is becoming more and more popular and now kids younger and younger are going online to interact. According to Inside Network, nearly 21% of Facebook users are between the ages of 13 and 17 as of September 2011.

Children tend to not pay attention or be aware of many online scams or cyber threats that exist on the Internet, so coming up with a plan of action is important. Parents need to monitor their children’s online habits and keep the following advice in mind.

Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona urges parents to explain the difference between sharing and over sharing. While social networking is about connecting with people, kids should never share personal information such as phone numbers, addresses, bank account numbers, passwords or their Social Security number. Talk about what constitutes inappropriate photos or language and stress the fact that, once something is posted, it can never fully be taken back, even if deleted.

Join them online. Parents should set up their own account in the same social networks as their children. This will help better understand what social networking is all about. Parents can also “Friend” their child and keep an unobtrusive eye on what they are doing.

“Never talk to strangers” applies online too. One of the first rules kids learn is to never talk to strangers. Parents should remind children that the rule holds true when online. Even though chatting with a stranger online can seem harmless, the relationship can evolve and grow until the stranger has earned a child’s trust, and can then exploit it.

Set strict privacy settings. Most social networking sites let users determine who they want to share information with. Advise children about restricting access to social network profiles to only friends or users in safe networks such as their school, clubs or church groups.

Keep the channels of communication open. Let kids know that you are always ready to talk if they are ever threatened, bullied or feel uncomfortable about an experience they had online. Report concerns about data collection from children under 13 to the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus at www.caru.org/complaint.

A new year signals a fresh start and time for new passwords for all of your online accounts – especially if you haven’t changed your passwords in months, years or ever. Changing your password is even more critical if your password is the word “password.”

Why? Splash Data ranked “password” as the most popular password of 2012. Rounding out the top 25: 123456, 12345678, abc123, qwerty, monkey, letmein, dragon, 111111, baseball, iloveyou, trustno1 (except your BBB of course), 1234567, sunshine, master, 123123, welcome, shadow, Ashley, football, jesus, Michael, ninja, mustang and password1.

Experts recommend changing passwords at least every six months with every three months being the gold standard. There are several reasons for this. First, passwords are often stolen without our knowledge and second, stolen passwords often aren’t used immediately. Instead, they’re collected, sold to organized crime, rebundled and resold, and often left untouched for long periods of time. Even if you’re not aware your password was stolen, if you’re in the habit of changing it periodically, there’s a good chance you will have changed it before a thief has an opportunity to use it.

At Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona, for example, our computers and some of the programs we use remind every user to change his/her password at a designated time frame. At home? Well, my guess is many of us have been using the same passwords for a long time – but no one’s willing to fess up.

Changing your password is not difficult. Neither is changing your weak password (12345) into a strong password (12AbF34#%). I’m not a fan of passwords that don’t resonate with me, such as the one I just mentioned that mixes numerals, upper and lowercase letters and symbols in a hodgepodge fashion. Who remembers those? Certainly not me.

A common suggestion is to take a sentence or phrase that you know well. For example, I’m a big fan of Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” series of children’s books. Let’s say I chose this sentence: “Frog and Toad agreed: it was a perfect day for a swim.” I would take the first letter of each word and I get FaTa:iwapdfas. Need to throw in a numeral? Pick your favorite and insert it where it makes sense for you.

Do you need to have a separate password for all of your online accounts? Opinions differ. Some experts say if you have one strong password – seven or eight  characters with a mix of letters, numerals and symbols – it should be good enough. Others say that’s foolhardy and that you should have different passwords for all of your accounts. I’m thinking the real answer is somewhere in the middle.

We should listen, however, when the experts tell us not to write them down – not even in our own homes – for fear that they’ll be stolen. Why? It’s an unfortunate fact that identity theft is often done by someone we know, often family members, friends or employees.

If you can’t write them down what should you do? Make your passwords strong – but make them memorable.

In the aftermath of the death of Osama Bin Laden this past weekend, Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is warning consumers to watch out for a slew of cyber-scams that have popped up in the past few days.

According to Kaspersky Labs, an Internet security firm, malicious Web sites and links have been proliferating on Google Images search, Facebook, and other social media sites.

On Facebook, a fake video purporting to show the death of Bin Laden prompts users to input a malicious URL into their browsers, which will infect their computer with a virus. Kaspersky also reports that other Facebook scams lure victims to malicious Facebook Pages with promises of free airplane tickets, and other “free” offers to “celebrate Osama’s death.”

Consumers should also be very wary of links to Bin laden related Web sites that they find on Twitter, or any link with a URL that leads to an unfamiliar webpage. Often these links will lead consumers to Web sites with viruses, or forms that encourage consumers to enter personal information, which can be used to steal their identity, or for phishing scams.

BBB Tips:

• Be mindful about clicking on links that purport to show information that’s not widely available from respected news sources. In the case of Bin Laden, no photos or videos related to his death have been released. Be extremely skeptical of links that say otherwise.
• Be wary of free offers “celebrating” any sort of occasion, especially if the offer comes from a company or Web site you haven’t heard of before. Often times all it takes for a scammer to infect your computer with a virus is clicking on one bad link.
• If you you’re unsure if an offer or a Web site is legitimate, contact BBB at (520)888-5353.

For more information on how consumers can protect themselves against scams, or to find reputable businesses they can visit www.tucson.bbbb.org.