How safe is facebook or twitter? i want to convince my parents to let me get one!?

[mlia]

my parents are adamant about me not being on the internet. they have never let me have a myspace because my dad says that nothing is ever safe on the internet.
i'm quite limited in the communication department (no texting, myspace or instant messenger) and when it comes to girls and guys at my school and stuff all they can do is call me.
i really want to convince my parents to let me go on facebook or twitter. how safe are they? would they pass my dad's safeness inspection?

details would be great so that i can sound like i know what i'm talking about when i attempt this whole thing.
how private can you set your account to be?

[greatspy939]

it is very safe as long as you don't put personal info on there

[Wess278]

Its VERY dangerous. DO NOT do it!

[Kayy]

yeah it is safe.
just DO NOT post certain items on the website, like the name of the road where you live, or, other personal details. you can give your email address on there etc.and of course you can set your profile to private and that.

[♥in love]

nothing is safe unless you're gonna be very carefully on it and no info's

[G M]

I dunno If you tell me your address though I can probably answer your question. { I KEEED!!!!!!}.

Look before approaching your parents why don't you read up on online safety precautions for young people. "to prove to them that your responsible enough to handle it".

If you can show them that your capable of taking the effort to educate yourself in safe online practices then they may possibly agree with you that your ready.

P.S. Do not give your address to anyone that you do not personally know "including myself .

[Emily]

Hey,

So, I don't use Twitter, at all, but I have used Facebook for awhile now. Here are some really good things about it that make it safe for anyone to use:

You have absolute control of your privacy settings for your profile. This includes setting your profile to private (so that only people that you have accepted a friend request from can view any information about you), making your name unsearchable (so in order for anyone to become friends with you, you have to be the one to look for them, because if they search for your name, it will not appear), and blocking your profile picture, so no one can see a picture of you unless you are their friend. Ultimately, you control your privacy settings.

Then, you control what information you include on your profile. There are places where there are specific blanks to be filled, like phone number or address, but it is totally optional to fill in that information. You can even put a nickname to appear instead of your real name, so only people who know your nickname would be able to find you (unless you have made yourself unsearchable).

Another bonus is that you belong to things called "networks" that are centered on your community and/or the school you go to, and each requires either an email verification or a zip code. The benefit of this function is that if anyone is on the site just looking for people to prey on, they would have to know a specific name, because you can only browse through people in your own network.

I really hope that this helps your case.