Facebook has just published a handy guide to help you do all you can to stay safe and secure when you are online and using the social networking site.

Available on free download, the 14-page PDF entitled "A Guide to Facebook Security For Young Adults, Parents, and Educators" offers a wealth of common-sense and practical information and tips to help you understand what Facebook is doing to make the site
safe and secure and to take the actions that are needed to protect yourself and your account.

And, as Facebook says in the guide, you can apply what you learn for other places you use online as well:

[…] While the focus of this guide is on Facebook, the lessons here apply to every site you visit online. Throughout the guide, we will highlight the unique tools that Facebook provides so that you can harness your power by protecting your account, using advanced security settings, recovering a hacked Facebook account, and stopping imposters.

It’s a useful information resource that will help you however you use Facebook

Don’t think it’s only for personal users – if you’re a business user on Facebook,  this is also for you.

Finally, while you’re downloading the PDF, check these common-sense "Top Tips for Staying Secure on Facebook" included in the guide:

1. Only Friend people you know.
2. Create a good password and use it only for Facebook.
3. Don’t share your password.
4. Change your password on a regular basis.
5. Share your personal information only with people and companies that need it.
6. Log into Facebook only ONCE each session. If it looks like Facebook is asking you to log in a second time, skip the links and directly type www.facebook.com into your browser address bar.
7. Use a one-time password when using someone else’s computer.
8. Log out of Facebook after using someone else’s computer.
9. Use secure browsing whenever possible.
10. Only download Apps from sites you trust.
11. Keep your anti-virus software updated.
12. Keep your browser and other applications up to date.
13. Don’t paste script (code) in your browser address bar.
14. Use browser add-ons like Web of Trust and Firefox’s NoScript to keep your account from being hijacked.
15. Beware of "goofy" posts from anyone – even Friends. If it looks like something your Friend wouldn’t post, don’t click on it.
16. Scammers might hack your Friends’ accounts and send links from their accounts. Beware of enticing links coming from your Friends.

Practical advice that you can easily apply anywhere you go online, whatever type of user ‘hat’ you wear.