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Online, its even more important to think about how you want others to see you. Here's some tips on how to create and maintain a good reputation.

Creating your brand

• You probably decide what people are like by reading what they say and looking at what they post online – and other people do the same thing.  Think about the way you want other people to think of you, and then try to project that in the way you talk and interact online.

• Part of the journey from kid to grown-up is working out who you are and who you want to be. Most people try lots of things – different groups of friends, styles of clothes, music - before they settle on an identity that really expresses who they are.

• The journey you take to your grown-up self will be mapped in family and friends' photos, or in your diary or journal. Your digital footprint will also keep a record, so it’s worth thinking about how much of what you’re experimenting with you’d want made public in a month, a year or even five years.

• If there’s something you may not want to be reminded of, it’s probably safer not to broadcast it over the internet or your mobile phone.

The school assembly rule

There are some things you just don’t want everyone to know about, but the trouble with technology is that it’s very hard to limit who sees what.
When in doubt about whether to say or post something online, use the ‘school assembly’ rule: if you wouldn’t want something held up, read out or displayed at your school assembly, it’s safer not to text, post, email or chat about it over your phone or the internet. That especially applies to:
• Information about your drug and alcohol use or other people’s;

• Nudity or sexually explicit stuff; and

• Hurtful or insulting pictures, messages or jokes about someone else (because in some cases, forwarding these may even be a crime).

Protect your future brand

• Some employers and unis look at your social networking pages when they’re deciding whether to give you a job or a place on a course, so it’s always worth thinking about the future before you text, post, email or chat.

• It is possible that one day you might meet in person someone you’ve known online, which can be embarrassing or even humiliating if you’ve said or done something that you regret.