As our world becomes ever more social, the dangers we unknowingly put ourselves in increase. Here’s a quick look at what not to do when connecting with your “followers.”

A recent study done by the American Psychological Association found that of all internet offenders only 5 percent pretended to be teenagers. Most of the time teens met with offenders more than 1 time. They also found that teens who engaged in risky behaviors like maintaining friend lists with people they did not know were much more likely to receive online sexual solicitations. The problem is, most teens are still not as concerned about the risks of sharing information and photos to the public.

As this story unfolded and I was left all day without access to some of my favorite social networks and worse yet the tools and 3rd party apps I use, along with millions of other users experiencing those same problems… if large companies and major corporations can have these kinds of attacks, what makes us think we are not just as vulnerable even more so, because we assume we are protected… oh MY!!

Unsupervised access to the internet is too dangerous no matter how much we trust our own children. There are just too many predators out there who are extremely good at what they do. And, its not just the adults we have to be leery of; peer bullying can be equally hazardous.

It is not much different than asking the same question regarding the benefits of the media: Internet, television, magazines, books, etc. are outweighed by the risks. There exist polar opposites for each which, fortunately the majority considers unacceptable and the extreme.