📍 Where you are in the curriculum: Week 10 of 12

Welcome to Unit 4: Living Online! You've built serious security skills over the past 9 weeks. Now let's put them into practice. This week combines your knowledge of digital footprints (Week 1), privacy settings (Week 8), and threat awareness (Unit 2) into practical advice for sharing content safely.

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Your Personal Info Is Like a Key 🔑

Imagine your personal information is like a key to your house. You wouldn't hand your house key to random strangers on the street, right? So why would you share personal info with strangers online?

But here's the tricky part — sometimes we share personal stuff online without even realizing it.

The "Never Share" List

According to the FTC's guide to protecting children's privacy online ↗, these things should NEVER be shared with people you don't know in real life:

• 🏠 Your home address — even your neighborhood or street name
• 🏫 Your school name — someone could find you there
• 📱 Your phone number — this can be used to find out a LOT about you
• 🎂 Your full birthday — often used for password hacking or identity theft
• 📛 Your full name — use a username or nickname instead
• 🔑 Any passwords — never share these with ANYONE, not even your best friend

But Wait — "I'd Never Share That!"

You might think, "I'd never just tell someone my address!" But scammers are sneaky. They don't always ask directly. Instead, they might:

• 🗣️ Ask "What school do you go to?" in a casual Roblox chat
• 🤔 Ask "What's the weather like where you are?" to narrow down your location
• 🎮 Say "I live in [your city], are there any cool places near you?"
• 📸 Look at the background of your photos for clues

They piece together small details like a puzzle until they know way too much about you.

The Puzzle Piece Rule

🧩 Think of every piece of personal info as a puzzle piece. One piece alone might seem harmless. But when someone collects enough pieces, they can build a complete picture of who you are, where you live, and where you go to school.

Before sharing ANYTHING online, ask yourself: "Is this a puzzle piece that someone could use to find me in real life?"