Why should you be careful of what you post in an online discussion?

Answer 1

• Because if you make a defamatory statement knowingly or not knowingly, a person's reputation may get damaged. So there is a good chance that the person taking legal actions against you. In online discussions it is a document (not verbal) considered as libel and serves as proof that you are the person who published it.

Three parties are liable for such offenses.

1. The Writer
2. The Editor
3. The publisher

However if you can prove that

1. you are not the writer, the editor or the publisher or
2. You took reasonable care for it's publication and
3. you didn't know and had no reason to believe that what you said or posted would lead to a publication of a defamatory statement

you will be considered not guilty.

• Sometimes you may give out too much information about yourself. This sometimes may be a threat to privacy even if you don't know that.

Answer 2

There are a number of reasons people should be careful about what they post in an online discussion, as well as on their social media sites. Some of them are:

People need to be very careful about posting personal details online, whether in a private email, or on social media sites. They also need to be sure they know the person with whom they share any personal details, including name, address, age, etc. There are many people online who pretend to be someone other than who they actually are.

A common example: a 50 year old man may pretend to be a 15 year old girl, using a photo of someone else - often the photo is one he stole from someone on their social media page. Then, as he gains your trust by telling you about 'herself' (which is really him), making up things like a boyfriend who broke up with 'her', or parents who don't understand and are too strict with 'her', or tells you about 'her' friends at school, and many other things typical teen girls talk about, this will help to gain your trust and secure the bond of your friendship. And once the bonds of that friendship have formed, he has you right where he wants you - which is dangerous! So never accept friend invites or exchange emails with someone unless you can verify they are who they say they are. Some ways to do this would be don't accept friend invites unless you and the other person have other friends in common - someone you know personally who can vouch for that person. If you get a friend invite from someone with whom you have no mutual friends, do not accept it unless you can veryfy they really are who they say they are.

Another precaution to take in online discussions is to never post publicly that your family and you are going to be on vacation. That lets every theif, thug, and crook who has access to your information know your home will be empty, and will be prime pickings for a home invasion. This also includes not posting vacation photos until after you get back home from vacation.

One should also be very careful about many of the photos of themselves, their children and grandchildren they post online. There are many pedophiles and serial rapists who search these photos, looking for the ones which give detailed information as to location, date, and even the time of day the photo was taken. Yes - they really can obtain that information from the photo details. If you don't know how to remove that information from the photos before posting them, ask someone who is computer savy to show you how.

Quite often, while engaged in an online discussion, people may think nothing of posting what they feel or think at the moment, with no thought as to whether it's appropriate for public viewing. But once something is posted in an online discussion, whether in a public forum or in a private email, it's 'out there', and can be there permanently, even if years later the person regrets, or changes their mind about what they said. And this can leave the door wide open, even years later, for others to use against that person, even if that person was only a teen when they posted it.

The same goes for photos people post online, such as on their social media pages. Something that may seem "cool" at the time, such as a teen posting a photo of herself in suggestive photos, or doing things like holding a bottle of beer, smoking a joint, etc., won't seem so "cool" when they become an adult and are looking for a good job. Some employers actually do social media searches before hiring their employees, and won't hire those with unflattering things like that.

The bottom line is to always use common sense before posting anything online, both on open forum discussions, such as Twitter and Facebook, or in emails.