Off the Internet, your social network means your group of friends and your family. So, on the Internet, social networks, or social network sites, are websites where you can keep in touch with people. Either your friends and family from off the Internet, or new people you meet on the Internet, on social network sites.

I work and earn money on the Internet, so I use quite a few social network sites. My favourites, and the ones I use the most, are Facebook and Twitter. They help me keep in touch with people I don’t see in real life very often- my friends from the schools I used to go to and my family who live out of London.

In the last couple of years, I’ve started adding people I’ve met through my website, Same Difference, to my Facebook and Twitter. They are mostly disabled people, parents and carers, and we mostly talk about disability. Sometimes, some of us talk about our cats as well! Some of them have become good friends of mine. I have met some of them in real life after talking to them online and they are very nice people.

Of course, adding people you’ve never met in real life to your social networks can be dangerous. It’s just like talking to strangers on the street. When you’re talking to someone you’ve never seen before, you can never know if they are telling you the truth, or what they are telling you the truth about. That is the most dangerous thing about social networks.

I have mostly been lucky. Most of the people I’ve met on the Internet are real people and they tell me the truth. But there have been a few times when people have added me to Facebook to try to sell me things I don’t want to buy, or to ask me personal questions that I don’t want to answer.

The thing to remember is that if anyone that you don’t know in real life adds you on the Internet, you have to be very careful. If they don’t look like a real person, delete them straight away. If they look like a real person but ask you any questions that you don’t want to answer, delete them straight away.

Another very dangerous thing on the Internet is hackers. Hackers are people who find out your passwords and then try to email and Facebook your friends, acting as you, to ask them for money.  If someone you already know in real life and have on your Facebook tries to add you again, always ask them if they have made a new Facebook account before accepting them. If you ever get an email message from someone you know asking you for money, don’t answer it- it’s not who you think it is. It’s someone trying to find out about your friend- usually to steal money from them- or maybe even from you.

After reading all that, you might not believe this, but most of the time, I love social networks. I love keeping in touch with my friends and family- and Facebook and Twitter let me do that for free!

So, please use the Internet as much as you can. But, when you’re using the Internet, always try to remember to be careful of what you say and who you say it to.