You see it everyday. People are driving while texting or walking down the street attached to their mobile phones. In our latest video on the rules of netiquette, you’ll learn 6 essential tips for cell phone etiquette to help you communicate safely and appropriately.

At the end of the digital day, remember the following:

• Never text & drive

• Don’t treat your phone as an accessory

• Keep conversations private when in public

• Keep your head up – don’t text while walking

• Don’t send a text to follow-up

• Avoid playing “texting games”

Julie Spira is a cyber-relations and netiquette expert. She’s the author of The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web. For more tips on netiquette, like us at Facebook.com/rulesofnetiquette and follow us on Twitter @netiquetterules

It’s a Happy 100th Anniversary for the Girl Scouts of America, who announced that 2012 is officially The Year of the Girl.

This week, March 12-16, 2012 is Girl Scout Week. In honor of their centennial  anniversary and as part of my annual tradition, I purchased a box of thin mint chocolate cookies from the two young girls who were sitting in front of the local grocery store. It reminded me of my own childhood of when I was proud to be a member of the Girl Scouts of America.

According to the Wall Street Journal, 50 million girls have worn the Girl Scout uniform in the past 100 years. But today, being a Girl Scout is more than just promising “Scout’s Honor.” Every Girl Scout must sign an Internet Safety Pledge promising they will practice good netiquette.

The pledge, developed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, was designed to protect our youth. This modern day pledge requires that each Girl Scout follow the rules of netiquette for Internet sites, including rules that are based on age of use, parental approval, and acknowledge public laws. They also require that young girls promise not to send spam, engage in cyber bullying, or to use bad language.

While these rules should not be limited to members of Girl Scouts, it’s a reminder to parents everywhere to make sure they know what their children are up to online, on Facebook, on their cell phones, and on all social networking sites. Children could be posting information that could prevent them from graduating high school, being accepted to college, or even worse, may put their lives in danger.

A recent Harlequin romance survey showed that 43% of women 18+ were comfortable in sending sexting messages to boys, with 27% having sent nude photos via emails or text messages. This disturbs me and would be in violation of the GSUSA Online Safety Pledge.

Children and parents should spend time talking about what rules of netiquette they should practice before logging on to their computers. If any suspicious activities are noticed, children should report it to their parents right away so the appropriate action can be taken.

At this time, I’d like to congratulate the Girls Scouts of America on their 100^th anniversary and encourage everyone to support your local troop during their cookie drive. Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts in 1912, would be very proud today

Photo credit: Girl Scouts of America

Julie Spira is a cyber relations and netiquette expert. She is the author of The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web. Visit her at rulesofnetiquette.com and Facebook.com/rulesofnetiquette

Facebook has widened their popular relationship status choices to include “In an open relationship,” “In a civil union,” and “In a domestic partnership.” As one of the most popular features on the social networking site, friends enjoy commenting on each step in your personal life with digital enthusiasm.

So what happens to a Facebook profile when someone dies? Should it just be left there for people to comment on, deleted, or should their relationship status drop down include the category for deceased? How should we memorialize and remember someone’s online digital life?

This is a very sensitive but extremely important subject to think about. Would you feel worse if you didn’t know about the passing of a friend? Do you really want to see your loved ones’ profiles filled with spam and Happy Birthday messages?

I’ve spoken and written about what I call the Social Media Obituary as it relates to Facebook status updates, memorial pages, and how we write our obituaries while we’re alive for others to honor at the time of our death. As every tweet, status update, blog post, and YouTube video is posted, we are constantly creating a permanent digital footprint, which will define our lives while we’re alive and our legacy later on.

Death and dying is a very delicate and emotional subject. Some immediately delete the profiles of their loved ones when they pass away. Others, who don’t have the password handy, leave the profiles up. The result all-too-often, is that spam ends up on the page of the newly deceased along with birthday wishes from those who didn’t see the death notice on Facebook.

This brings up a serious question to ponder. Should there be a mourning period for your social networking profiles? If so, what’s the grace period? Should you take the time to change the status on your loved one’s profile to deceased? When radio legend and friend George Taylor Morris passed away in 2009, I found out on Facebook. His profile picture was removed and replaced with the whimsical Looney Tunes logo, which said, “That’s all Folks.” On the one-year anniversary of Morris’s death, the Facebook profile was permanently removed, but his memory will live on.

Recently, when a Los Angeles artist died unexpectedly due to a massive stroke, I viewed her Facebook profile to see if there was anything posted from the family. I thought that perhaps a family member would post an update on where to make a donation or details of a memorial service. Nothing had changed on her profile. It was as if she was still alive. A few days later, her daughter posted an update stating that the family was grieved to announce her sudden passing and stated how she treasured her friends. A website address to the artist’s works was posted for her friends to view. In my opinion, it was graciously done. However, the daughter didn’t have the option to change her mother’s relationship status to deceased. Unless you had read it in the obituaries or heard about it from word-of-mouth, you might be looking forward to seeing the artist at her next art exhibition.

In the Jewish religion, although they believe in a quick burial, on or about the one-year anniversary of the death, the tombstone is placed on the grave in a religious ceremony.

Do you think Facebook profiles should stay active or be deactivated or have a grace period to mourn?

Have you ever posted an obituary on Facebook or other social networking sites? Would you? Do you believe Facebook should add a status for deceased or would you prefer seeing a memorial page elsewhere? Your comments and opinions are welcome.

Julie Spira is a relationship and netiquette expert, social media strategist, and author of The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web. Visit her at RulesofNetiquette.com, Facebook.com/rulesofnetiquette and Twitter.com/netiquetterules

In honor of National email week, we posted some Dos and Don’ts on our Facebook page, and received many comments on the pet peeves from our readers. It’s reported that over 100 trillion emails were sent last year on the public Internet.

Whether you use Hotmail, Google, MacMail, AOL, or other Internet service providers, many of you are also using Facebook messages and direct messages on Twitter to connect with people, as it’s a less digitally-crowded way to have your email be viewed.

On Facebook, Margaret said, TYPING IN ALL CAPS was her pet peeve. Yes, that does mean you’re yelling in netiquette terms. She added forwarding emails without editing out the email addresses from the list who had previously forwarded it.

Jovana submitted two digital pet peeves: Using text speech (OMG u r 4 real!!!) and using incorrect grammar.

Ernie said, Massacring the English language for brevity’s sake.

Roger was frustrated with comment spammers on blogs who always have to add their link.

Chris hates the chain letter emails. Does anyone really like them?

Barbara was frustrated with huge attachments to emails that might crash her computer.

Christie was frustrated with those who don’t properly address you in the email introduction, “Dear ….”

The list could go on and we welcome your comments.

Julie Spira is a netiquette expert and the author of ‘The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web.”  Follow Julie on Twitter @JulieSpira and @netiquetterules.

Thinking of pulling a digital prank on a friend on Facebook or Twitter this year? Possibly breaking up with your beau in a text message? Going to fake quitting your job today?

As much as I enjoy humor any day of the week and a harmless prank, think twice before posting your prank on the Internet. It’s time to follow the rules of netiquette.

Even if you’re kidding and love your job, you’ll be creating a permanent digital footprint that sometimes just can’t be erased. Those tweets can be clickable links on Google and can be forwarded everywhere and become viral.

To protect your digital reputation, if you must be a jester on April 1^st, kid around with your friends and family in person and not the Internet. Make sure you let them know it’s an April Fool’s joke right away so you don’t harbor upset feelings that can get out of hand.

So if you’re worried about becoming an April Fool, here are some things to remember.

1. Twitter – Check your tweets and @mentions a little more frequently than usual. Plan on deleting a large group of followers? Don’t rush into it as gaining them back all at once might be a red flag that you’re a spammer and the joke will be on you.
2. Facebook – Make sure the class clown isn’t tagging you in unflattering photos. Set your privacy settings to notify you instead of coming home to a wall you wish didn’t exist.  If so, untag yourself as soon as possible. Going to un-friend your best friend? Don’t be hasty as you’ll have to request permission
3. Blogs – Monitor your comments on your blogposts if they aren’t moderated and beware of the jokester in your life.
4. Emails – Any suspicious emails with outrageous stories should be taken with a grain of digital salt.
5. Texts – Don’t cancel a date or appointment or end a relationship on a text message as a joke. You might think it’s funny and your loved one might permanently delete you if he or she isn’t laughing.

Remember, even if you quickly delete your digital April Fool’s message, it may be cached and stored on multiple servers. It’s shelf-life will last a lot longer than the original prank, so remember the basic rules of netiquette. At the end of the day, you want to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Julie Spira is the author of The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web. Visit her at netiquetteexpert.com. Like her on facebook at facebook.com/rulesofnetiquette

Netiquette Expert and author Julie Spira with Lisa Johnson Mandell on This Week in Careers. Find out why Twitter is essential for your business and the Rule of Netiquette for Twitter.

We’d love it if you’d Like us on Facebook and share your netiquette stories.

Watch The Rules of Netiquette author Julie Spira with Lisa Johnson Mandell, host of This Week in Careers talking about email etiquette for job seekers.

For more netiquette tips, like us at Facebook.com/rulesofnetiquette

Netiquette made the news this week in a big way as Pope Benedict XVI officially embraced netiquette and encouraged Christians to participate positively in social networking sites.

The 83-year old Pontiff’s message for the Catholic Church’s World Day of Communications included one of my Top 10 Rules of Netiquette – the Authenticity Rule.

The Pope spoke about the perils of social networking including “enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual world.” He balanced his message by saying, “In the search for sharing, for ‘friends,’ there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful and not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself.”

The Pope does not have a direct relationship with social networking sites, nor does he have a Facebook page or Twitter account as of yet, but it’s clear that Internet etiquette is a concern from one of the world’s most important leaders. The Vatican’s YouTube Channel has been viewed over 2.8 million times.

Watch author Julie Spira talk about The Rules of Netiquette on NBC News in New York.