Yahoo! Mobile Safety Guide

What is Yahoo! Mobile?

Yahoo! Mobile makes it totally easy to put Yahoo! features on your mobile device. You can get maps or driving directions on your phone, check email, find a movie showtime, get the latest celeb headlines, and do more to make your day easy and fun.

You can use Yahoo! Mobile on your phone to IM with friends, get updates from your favorite social networking sites, upload photos to a Flickr account, or check the latest sports scores. And this is pretty awesome: You can customize your mobile experience by adding Widgets.

Yahoo! Mobile Help explains even more.

What are some potential risks on Yahoo! Mobile?

So on a mobile device, communicating by voice, email, text, or instant messages has similar risks to the ones you could have when you’re connected to the Internet on a computer. So make your personal safety on a mobile device a priority:

• Protect your personal info. In email, text messages, or instant messages to people who are not trusted friends or family, don’t give out personal information they could use to find your physical location. Guard your password, cell phone number, and Yahoo! ID like a hawk. And be super-careful about using the camera on your phone. Think twice before sending your photo, because it could easily be re-sent and used in ways you don’t want. Like it could be widely circulated in text messaging or posted on a webpage that anyone with an Internet connection can access ― including bullies or strangers.
• Control harassment. If a stranger gets your mobile phone number or Yahoo! ID, or if bullies use that info, you might be a target of nasty, sexually suggestive, or abusive language. Think carefully about who you want to communicate with and who to ignore. Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger have features that block other people. If you get a lot of unwanted text messages, read your phone’s manual or contact your mobile carrier to find out how to turn off text messaging for a while. In an extreme situation, it’s so worth it to get a new mobile phone number.

If you receive abusive or harassing messages in the form of comments that are shown in Yahoo! Mobile but are hosted on third-party websites (such as Facebook or MySpace), a safety-smart thing is to go to that website’s abuse page for instructions on reporting abuse. Popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have their own safety features and abuse reporting procedures.

• Report mature content. You could be subjected to explicit photos, videos, text messages, or instant messages sent from someone else’s phone or through services like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, or Flickr. If you are subjected to inappropriate or mature content from a Yahoo! property, use our customer care form to report abuse.
• Use trusted third-party applications. If you download software from a third party through Yahoo! Mobile, be sure to download applications only from developers you trust. And, hey, read their privacy policies!
• Use SafeSearch. This Yahoo! Mobile filter feature helps keep mature content out of your serch results. But no filter is perfect, and it’s possible some explicit content can slip through, so we cannot guarantee it will filter all of it from search results.
• Use caution when texting. Safety risks in the mobile environment exist even outside of Yahoo!. So be cautious about what you send by text message to your friends, such as sexy pictures or inappropriate messages. Never text or share any personal or location information with people you don’t know and really trust. That’s a biggie. If you are receiving hurtful or offensive text messages, pictures, or videos over your mobile phone through text messaging, tell a trusted adult and report it to your phone carrier.
• Choose the right payment. Using the Internet — email, instant messages, web browsing, and that kind of activity — can get expensive. If you are accessing the Internet on a cell phone, be smart and sign up for an appropriate data plan.

But you have the power to limit these risks. Know the Yahoo! Mobile safety features we’re talking about on this page, and ask your parents or caregivers for help saying safer when using Yahoo! Mobile. And remember, everyone using Yahoo! Mobile must follow the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

What features and safety features should I know about to help protect myself on Yahoo! Mobile?

First, many of Yahoo!’s most popular Web services like Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, and Yahoo! Local are available for your mobile devices. Compared with the PC version, the cell-phone version will have a modified look and set of features, but it will work pretty much the same way. Yahoo!’s web services vary by carrier and phone model. But here’s the spectrum of features on Yahoo! Mobile:

• Safe Searching. SafeSearch is turned on by default in Yahoo! Mobile’s OneSearch. If you’re signed in and under the age of 18, SafeSearch can’t be turned off.
• Widgets. You can design a totally cool, totally you mobile environment through the Yahoo! Mobile Widget Gallery. You can add widgets that link to your favorite social networking sites, Flickr, sports, entertainment, and lots more.
• Yahoo! Messenger. Check out our simple tutorial that shows how to sign in and out, write and read instant messages, and set your availability status on a mobile device. Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to hide the status messages that tell other people when you are using Yahoo! on a mobile phone. Plus it explains how to turn on invisible mode to hide your online status, and how to manage settings, such as your list of people to ignore. Yahoo! also offers a separate guide that introduces Yahoo! Messenger’sonline safety features.
• Flickr. Flickr Mobile lets you manage and share digital photos at the same time as your Web-based Flickr account. That’s super-convenient! Flickr Mobile Help explains how to customize settings and manage photos and contacts. Yahoo! also offers a separate guide about Flickr’s online safety features.
• Yahoo! Image Search. can be You can search Yahoo!’s image database from a mobile phone (and turn on SafeSearch to limit exposure to explicit images). Yahoo! also has a separate guide about Yahoo! Image Search’s online safety features.
• Yahoo! Local. Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to work with a map, get driving directions, and even review and rate businesses. Yahoo! also offers a separate guide about Yahoo! Local online safety features.
• Yahoo! Mail. Find out from the simple tutorial how to read, reply to, write, and delete emails on a mobile phone. In addition, Yahoo! Mobile Help explains how to manage email and spam. Yahoo! also offers a separate guide about Yahoo! Mail’s online safety features .

What can I do to use Yahoo! Mobile in a safer way?

Start by checking out our general tips for online safety. They include safeguarding identity, keeping passwords secret, being cautious about contact with strangers, and creating a family pledge for online safety. These tips relate to accessing the Internet on a mobile phone.

Yahoo! is committed to providing a safer Internet experience for everyone, and it complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Yahoo! Mobile has a number of safety features to limit your potential risks. But protecting all of us using mobile devices is a responsibility we share with parents, teachers, and other caregivers.

Communicate openly and frequently with your parents or caregivers about your online activity. That’s a really good way to ensure your safety on the Internet. So is looking over your mobile phone bill with them, because the bill should list all calls made and received, and how much time you use the Internet on the phone.