Taking college campuses by storm, Facebook is the latest trend in keeping in touch with friends both new and old.  This site has a lot to offer, like finding people you went to school with or friends from other states.  It now has a high school portal as well, so high school students can enjoy what was originally only for college students.  But, as with most sites that ask for personal information, you have to be careful.  While you do need a valid college e-mail address to have a college account (and it needs to be approved to be associated with your school), it’s still very easy for people to lie and pretend to be someone they’re not.  Jesus Christ, for example, has several different Facebook profiles.  Here are some warnings to think about before signing up for Facebook.

- NEVER put your full address.  Putting the town you are from is one thing, so other people can see if they live near you.  But putting your full address enables someone to find out exactly where you live.  You don’t want any stalkers or unwanted visitors.  If you have a PO Box at college, you can put that down in case your friends want to send you mail (that is public information that can be found in your college directory as well).  But never put down where you live away from college.  This is a recipe for disaster.
- Don’t put down your cell or home phone number.  Putting down your extension at school, if you live there, makes it easy for your friends to look it up (there’s usually a college directory so this information is available to all those who go to your school anyway).  But unless you want random calls from strangers on your cell phone or at home, don’t include those.  Only give your number out to those you want to have it, not everyone who looks at your profile.
- Be careful who you accept as a friend.  People who want you as a friend on Facebook send you a request with their name, picture, and where they go to school.  If you don’t know who they are, you can send them a message asking how you know each other before accepting or denying the ‘friend request’.  Don’t hesitate to do this if you don’t recognize someone from the basic profile.  You don’t want to accept a sketchy individual as your friend.
- Create your user profile with care.  You get to create a user profile and fill out different fields about yourself, what books, movies, TV shows you like, what your interests are, etc.  Don’t put in something you wouldn’t want just anyone to find out. 
- Pictures are worth a thousand words.  So use discretion when posting yours!  Don’t put a picture of you doing something you’d be ashamed of if your parents found out. Parents (grandparents, even) have found pictures and information about their teens from sites like Facebook before – yours could too!
- Don’t meet strangers.  This is a pretty basic rule and while it can apply to different areas of life, be EXTREMELY careful with people you meet online, whether it is through a dating site, AOL member search, or a friends networking site like Facebook.  The good thing about this site is that these people have to have a college e-mail, and there’s usually someone who can confirm that the person is who he says he is (at least when it comes to your college).  But don’t go somewhere private and let someone know where you are going.  Meet them in your campus student center or somewhere with people around. Let your roommate know where you’re off to, and take a friend. There’s safety in numbers if you have to meet the person. 
- Take advantage of the privacy feature.  You can adjust how public you want your profile to be: whether you want everyone to be able to search for you or only allow friends to see your profile.  Depending on what you’re comfortable with you can utilize this tool to make your Facebook profile as private as you want it to be.
- Remember you have control over your account.  You can update your profile at any time, change your password, and even cancel the account.  If you think someone has your password, change it.  Or if you just don’t have time for it anymore, end your account.

Facebook is a very cool site.  It lets you search for friends you haven’t seen in a while, or keep in touch with friends from other schools or who live in different states.  It can be very addicting; some feel the need to check their Facebook account everyday.  It’s a lot of fun if you use the site as intended.  You can send your friends messages, send out party invitations, join groups, create photo albums…the possibilities are endless!  So, if your school allows it, and you keep these cautions in mind, go ahead and have your fun on Facebook.  Search away!