Your Online Footprint

What a footprint is

When you walk across a sandy beach, you leave footprints behind. Someone walking by later can see exactly where you went. The internet works the same way. Everything you do online — every message, every comment, every photo, every video you watch, every game you log into — leaves a little mark. All those marks together are called your digital footprint.

Here's the part most people your age don't know yet: those footprints don't wash away when the tide comes in. They tend to stick around.

Why it sticks around

You might think that if you delete a post or a message, it's gone for good. Sometimes it is. But a lot of the time it isn't — and here's why.

Someone can take a screenshot — a picture of their screen — before you delete it. Now they have a copy forever, and there is no un-sending it. Apps and websites also keep copies of things on their own computers, even after you tap delete. And once something has been shared, it can be copied and passed around by people you've never met.

The safest way to picture it: anything you put online, treat it like you wrote it in permanent marker, not pencil.

Who looks at it later

Right now, your footprint mostly gets seen by your friends. But it doesn't stay that way.

The teacher you'll have next year might search your name. A coach picking a team might. And the version of you who is sixteen, or twenty-five, definitely will — and future-you would really like past-you to have been thoughtful. This isn't about being scared. It's about knowing that the audience is bigger, and lasts longer, than it feels in the moment.

Your username counts too

Your footprint isn't only what you post. It's also the name you pick. When you make a username for a game or an app, don't use your full real name, and don't use your birth year. A username like "emma2014" quietly tells every stranger your real first name and almost exactly how old you are.

Pick something fun that isn't a map back to the real you — a favorite animal, a made-up word, a nickname only your family uses.

The grown-up test

Here's a quick test you can run in your head before you post or send anything: would I be okay if a grown-up I love — a parent, a grandparent, a favorite teacher — saw this?

If the answer is yes, you're probably fine. If the answer is "hmm, no," that's not a reason to feel bad about yourself. It's your own brain giving you a useful heads-up. Listen to it.

Recap

Your digital footprint is the trail of everything you do online. It sticks around longer than it feels like it should, and more people see it than you think. Choose usernames that don't give away the real you, and run the grown-up test before you post.

Try this today

Look at the usernames you already use for your games and apps. Do any of them include your real name or your birth year? If one does, ask a grown-up to help you change it.