It's on the news, you hear it in the lunch room, it can't be helped. Are blog spots really safe? Well, frankly, the answer is yes. A blog site is just as safe as the person who is using it is smart. Despite the amount of negativity surrounding such places, like predators and the likes, with proper use, and no abuse of these sites, teens, adults, and kids alike can safely use these available services without worry.
When you are editing your profile on one of these sights like My Space, Facebook, and many more, there are text boxes for you to fill in personal information such as address, birthday, so on and such forth, but that doesn't' mean you need to fill those in. In fact, a safe blogger would not fill such fields in. How is a predator suppose to find you if they know nothing about you but your name? Another field which is questionable is your school, sites leave a place for you to say what school you go to. Don't fill it in, and you can't be tracked that way. What's more is the sort of things which people put into their summaries of themselves. There is so much more to write about one's self than where they live, just don't mention it, it isn't that important. While you want a level of familiarity to be expressed on your profile, there is no need to broadcast such details about your where abouts as the house, town, city, state you live in.
Blog spots are a great way for friends to stay in touch, make new friends, even meet people from other countries, but you need to be smart about it. If you put all kinds of crazy pictures on, and in depth info about yourself, you just keep on increasing your level of risk. In turn, you give the site a bad name if something happens. For such instances, there is no one to blame but yourself, so you had better be prepared to deal with the consequences. While some may argue "why are there even fields for so much information" it doesn't mean you need to fill that in, perhaps you are using the site to make contacts in other countries or something, or for whatever reason, and you need those fields.
While there is much controversy over whether or not these sites are safe, I believe it is safe to assume that they are, and are only risky to the point of someone's own blatant stupidity. A smart blogger is a safe blogger, so do your homework, find out what you need to know, and blog the right way!
