It all started with a computer screen left on for just a little longer than it should have been. Either mom or pops happened to walk past, and BAM! It happened. An instant grounding for an eternity of weekends.

Maybe it was Susie who took the pictures at the party, then sent them to Sally, who gave Devin the okay to post them online for the world to see. It’s impossible to know for sure, but the fact remains the same: someone had to suffer the consequences of a shutter-happy fool’s decisions. What a shame, since this could have all easily been avoided.

With so many online networks and blogs around, chances are you belong to one, or are documented unknowingly somewhere on the internet. If you choose to take part in this (and even if you don’t), there a number of ways you can protect yourself from getting into bad, awkward, or potentially dangerous situations.

First, know that the info on the internet, even your private profile, can be available to almost everyone. When I say everyone, I mean your enemies, parents, friends’ parents, employers, teachers, or even your principal. There are ways for these authority figures to bypass privacy rights or sneak their way into your online community. Unfortunately, they believe that what you choose to do with your social life directly reflects on how capable of a worker, student, or child you are.

Others don’t believe they can truly get in trouble through a few pictures or comments. In most cases, they are technically right. You won’t get pulled out of class for a few racy pictures, but they can be held against you. For example, there are a few students who were suspended as freshman or sophomores. Now, in their senior year, they were looking to get them removed. Due to the incredible snooping skills of the administration, pictures were found in which the people around them were drinking. These students were guilty by association, so the suspensions remained on their records.

Everybody knows that drinking or smoking doesn’t necessarily make you cool in high school — if you didn’t, now you do. By the time students are through with freshmen year, all the substances they could possibly want are just a few phone calls or shoulder taps away. When it comes to sharing this information with others, it’s a different story. A lot of kids still think it’s great to document inebriation. Yes, the first few times it was funny seeing pictures of your drunk friend being colored on. Now it’s not. There is no need to document every moment of an unmemorable party like you’re part of a caravan of Japanese tourists. Please.

It’s easy for people to seem a lot cooler online than in person. Just ask any sexual predator. Before the Internet, pedophiles had some hard times. They had to resort to the candy and van technique. Very inefficient. MySpace, Facebook, and other networking sites gave them the opportunity to present themselves so that young girls could relate or think they were amusing.

This doesn’t just apply to creepers or complete strangers, either. People who comment on friends’ pages are given the same opportunities. Comments poking fun at pictures can be carefully planned, inside jokes can be orchestrated, and you can come off as a straight mac. Some use the internet as a tool to get back at their foes, or settle disputes, while others talk slander through comments. Doing so does not make you any more of a man or woman. Because they can’t get socked in the dome through a computer, people assume it’s okay to do these things. If you have beef with someone, settle it in person — mano a mano — not through keystrokes.

I finally succumbed to the pressure of Facebook. This means that I’m at risk to all of the above. To prevent myself from getting into trouble, I will now wear a bag over my head to every house party. No, forget the bag. They can still find my identity somehow. I’ll be the one holding a sign reading, “I am not taking part in any illicit activity, nor do I associate with any of the people around me.” I suggest you do something similar.