I have a bone to pick today. You know those cute little ‘get to know me’ questionnaires that people post on their stories? Yeah, it’s with those. Now before you get mad, I need you to actually hear me out.

I don’t care about people having fun or doing these to connect with their audiences, but I do have an issue with the fact that these ‘fun’ options are incredibly dangerous.

Those little quizzes are mostly harmless, but there will often be one question that is not. For example, let’s look at the following:

Notice anything strange? No? Okay what about this…

This article discusses some of the options for ‘good security questions’, which are often used in important documents or government websites. Take a look at the categories:

Notice anything familiar? Like how a lot of these harmless ‘get-to-know me’ questionnaires have one or two questions that could give anyone an idea of how you might answer those questions?

I’m not saying all of them do, but they are awful similar. Now this could just be paranoia, but I do find it especially alarming because these quizzes are typically geared towards young female audiences. I mean, look at the designs on those things. Not to say men can’t use them, but they are made for a specific demographic, and usually used by them too.

Remember that nothing online ever really goes away, so we do need to be careful about what we post. Best way to protect yourself is not to do these at all. I know it is a bit sad, but we live in a dangerous world, so we don’t want to be making things any easier than we need to for bad people.

It doesn’t help that the first questionnaire above literally asks you to tick off plenty of physical characteristics that could help people to identify you. This is obviously a danger for ‘faceless’ accounts, as people may get a very good picture of you even without ever seeing what you look like.

Lastly, I want to bring special attention to the fact that most of these questionnaires ask for your name and age first. Hear me very clearly: do not put your age online.

Predators do exist and will hunt down children that they can try to influence and groom. This makes their job a whole lot easier to find you and hurt you. Sadly, as internet etiquette is not yet taught or standardised, young people may ‘appreciate’ (in the loosest sense) the attention they receive as a result in the form of likes, inappropriate comments, and follows due to the value placed on these things. There are lots of issues around this, but it is good to be aware.

In a more professional sense, and this may not always apply to younger people, but adults should not need to advertise their age to employers. It may result in other forms of discrimination, so be wary there too.

In conclusion, please be more careful about what you post online. Sadly it is a scary world out there, and people will exploit you in many creative and seemingly harmless ways. This doesn’t mean you should not have fun or try new things, but I do ask and caution you to be careful.