Here’s our round-up of the latest apps. This month we loved CatNapp, a new social media app that allows users to share information about their favourite pets.

We found it very easy to use. You create a profile of your cat, upload a favourite photo and include some basic information about it (age, colour, favourite food). You can then post updates about what your cat has been doing, share links¹ to things you find interesting or comment on other cats’ profiles. You can rate videos of other cats’ adventures (from one to five stars) or see how many views² or likes³ your post got. The most popular post each month wins a prize!

We found it a little annoying that you can’t turn off notifications⁴ when a friend writes something new, but overall cat lovers will adore it. Highly recommended.

Language help
Many of the words in this unit are used as both nouns and verbs. For example:

• 24 people liked my post.
• My post got 24 likes.
• I commented on her status.
• I wrote a comment on her status.

Top tips for staying safe online

• On social media, it’s important to think about who can see your personal information:
• • If you have to give personal information (e.g. date of birth, address) when you create an account, make sure that it’s kept private. It’s better not to give this information if you don’t have to.
• • Always check your privacy settings [choices on your account about what people see on your profile] regularly and make sure you understand who can see what you post. For example, often your profile picture is public, but you can usually make posts on your timeline [collection of photos and other posts on your profile] private.
• • Remember that if you are tagged [your name and a link to your profile is added] in someone else’s post, it might be seen by a lot of people you don’t know. You can ask people to remove the tag if necessary.
• • Use direct messages [messages that only the people in the conversation can see] for private conversations, especially if you discuss where you live, paying for things, etc.
• • Delete old accounts on sites that you are not using any more. You might forget what information they contain, or the default [what happens automatically if you don’t change it] privacy settings might change.