Online safety tips
Parents and policy makers can help young adults pay attention to their online reputation and take steps to ensure a positive persona – personally and professionally.

Follow the Council for Digital Good
This program offers teens a platform to share their views on online safety topics that affect them. Members work with Microsoft to help create a safer, kinder, and more empathetic digital world.

The Digital Civility Challenge
Microsoft encourages everyone to take the challenge to help make the internet a safer place. Our fifth Digital Civility Index showed digital interactions and responses to online risks are improving around the world.

Create your own council
Find out more about Microsoft's Council for Digital Good – how participating teens helped grow positive online interactions and offered insights into technology use – and how you can build a youth council for your business.
Relationships
Relationships can be complicated in real life, and maybe more so online. You can fight with your sister over messenger, you can create a community on TikTok, and you can find your best friend in the comments on YouTube.

Stay in touch
The internet is a great tool to stay in touch with people over long distances, like cousins on another coast or friends studying abroad.
Be nice
Be nice to people, even if everyone else is being mean to them. Bullying is not cool in real life, or online.
Protect your identity, security, and privacy
Whether you meet a new person in real life or online, strive to be safe. Protect your identity, security, and privacy, and always tell someone you trust about a new person you meet online.
You have the right to say “no”
Remember you always have the right to say “no”, to cut off contact, or to report anyone who is bothering you online.
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16,300 years
Estimated time lost while repairing damage to online personal reputations in 2013
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$4.6 billion
Estimated amount lost worldwide due to damaged professional reputations
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Less than 20%
Percentage of respondents who have taken active steps to edit or remove online information that might impact their reputations
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Only 31%
Percentage of those surveyed who take time to protect their reputations online
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$1.4 billion
Estimated worldwide financial losses while repairing online damage to personal reputations in 2013
What potential online risks concern you the most?
- 28% Financial loss
- 17% Finding spyware, adware, or other tracking software on my devices
- 12% Loss of personal privacy
- 10% Online information damaging relationships with family/friends
- 8% Loss of job due to tarnished online reputation
- 9% Poor performance of computer
- 6% Being bullied or harassed online
- 6% Data loss
- 5% I do not have concerns about going online
What is the greatest benefit the internet has brought to your life?
- 40% Learning
- 16% Socializing
- 14% Exploring
- 14% Entertainment
- 7% Conducting business
- 9% Other
Social media cliche
Answer multiple choice questions about your social media habits to learn which cliché you are.
Take the quiz

Pin Head
Using location services? Limit who knows your whereabouts, pay attention to where/when you check in, and link to social media with care.

Momarazzi
Be mindful about what you post online about your kids – of any age. You might be putting them at risk by revealing their current location, age, school, etc.

Team Emo
Don't post anything you'd only say to a close friend. Whether you're happy, sad, angry, or have money worries, confiding broadly could increase your online risks of being bullied, targeted for scams, or worse.

Hashtag Hyper
Be selective about where and when you use hashtags to avoid oversharing your location. Keep sensitive details to yourself that could be used to defraud; impersonate; or find your home address, phone and account numbers, birthdate, or photos without your knowing it.

Selfie Centered
Before you post any pictures, videos, or comments online, ask yourself: Could this tarnish my reputation? Think before you post; it will be there a long, long time.