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Safety on the Net is certainly on any parents mind these
days.
With most of our kids spending time on the Web, we need to
educate and learn safety online
for our children's sake and our own!
What can a parent do to help protect your children and yourself and your
computer?
* Easy effective ways to protect your computer
* What you can do to protect your family
* Online Bullying
* Myspace ,Facebook, Friendster, blogs and profiles. Are they safe?
1. Easy effective ways to protect your
computer:
A) NEVER EVER EVER allow free downloads unless you are sure it is “safe”
download
B) Do not let your children download “Free Stuff”- Nothing ‘Free’ Is Ever
Free.
This is a prime method spyware creators
use to gain access to your computer
.
C) Install Anti-Spyware programs
There are very few free safe downloads- but there are some. Here are three of the
best FREE
Keep your Pc safe and clean, and surf safely!
The 3 FREE best Anti-Spyware tools I
use
Ad-aware http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Spybot http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html
For other useful tools and interesting
downloads, check out
For safe and useful downloads, you can
trust
RUN THEM ONCE A
WEEK!
Install updates for these programs as they become
available.
Windows XP users- you must install your software updates.
Most of these are security patches.
Ways to Protect Your Family
* Keep the computer in a family area.
Monitor it, where it is easy to see and you are aware of
what your
children are doing
* No computer with Internet
access in a child’s room...
Having a computer out in the open reduces the
temptation to go to
unsavory or dangerous sites by about 75%
* Set your search engine
preferences to “strict filtering”
All search engines offer this feature; I feel
Google is the best.
This still allows you and children to do research or homework
freely
while protecting them from unwanted images and
text.
Simply
find the section in your search engine that says
Advanced features- click there.
This
will take you to your choices on filtering – Strict, Moderate or none.
* Monitor Your Children’s History - Set the ‘History’ feature …
Open Internet Explorer- Click on Tools tab -/this opens to the General
tab- /the
third box down is History- / Set the amount of days you want
the history
saved.
Then
to check the ‘History’ …Open Internet Explorer-/ Find the icon on
your
toolbar that says History. Click on it, and on the left-hand side
menu
will open up and you will see all the days you requested saved,
recent
Internet activity.
*
Online Chat Rooms, Instant Messaging & Online
Predators
ü
Set time limits. This may be unpopular, but it is necessary with today’s
advanced technology.
ü
Know whom your children are talking with. Know the nicknames and who they
are.
ü
Do not tolerate unknown parties.
ü
Be aware of acronyms: pbm. - “parent behind me” and pos- “parent over
shoulder”.
ü
Tell your children that at any time you may sit in and watch the
conversation.
ü
Do not let your children go into places online that you are not aware
of.
Sit down and discuss the
following safety guidelines with your children.
1) Never, ever give out any
personal information about yourself online!
If you give out your name or
address, people can find where you live, and this can be very dangerous.
Do not tell
people where you are going, what you do, and where you live.
2) Do not go to any chat rooms
without your parent’s permission.
Only talk to people you know
personally.
Many dangerous people pretend to be
a teenager in chat rooms.
Never agree to meet someone you
have met online
3) Do not feel like you have to
respond to any messages, emails or text messages
that make you uncomfortable
or upset you.
4) Always tell an adult when you
feel threatened or upset by anything online!
* Online Bullying… What
is it and what can you do?
This is when other kids harass
your children through instant messaging,
email or text messages using the cell
phone.
What can you
do?
Ø
Talk to your kids about it. Ask direct questions, "Have you or any of friends
ever been harassed online”?
Ø
Ask them what may have happened with their friends, this makes it easier to
start a dialog.
Let your children know the
following: They can…
Ø
Block emails from bullies
Ø
Block Id’s in IM/AIM that are saying hurtful things or harassing
them
Ø
Never give out your full name or any personal information online, always first
name only!
Ø
Do not respond to bullies- TELL YOUR PARENTS or another adult! They are not
alone.
* Myspace -Online diaries/journals/blogs. Is it safe?
Myspace is a
meeting/social networking website.
Millions of
teenagers, (and millions of adults) create
highly
personal profiles and journal their thoughts online.
These often
include shockingly revealing photos, and
personal
information.
There are not
filters that you , as a parent can use to keep your child from seeing all of these.
Myspace is loaded with nude photos, and tons of sexual inappropriate
content.
A study of teenagers' blogs/journals published this
year by the Children's Digital Media Center
at GeorgetownUniversityrevealed that kids volunteer far too
much information.
Two-thirds provide their age and at least their first name; 60 percent
offer their location and contact information.
One in five offer up their full name. Our kids are telling strangers
their inner most feelings,
school they attend, town they live in and more. This is not safe, at
any age
*
You must be 14 to sign up. ( this is in no way
enforced)
Just two years after its creation, MySpace went from
zero to more fifty million members.
As of August 2006, the web reports were up
to 100 million!
| Percentage of Monthly Market Share of Visits Among Top Social Networking Web Sites
(U.S.), April Through June 2006 |
| Domain |
June 2006 |
May 2006 |
April 2006 |
| www.myspace.com |
79.97 |
77.20 |
76.07 |
| www.thefacebook.com |
7.58 |
8.73 |
8.24 |
| www.xanga.com |
3.81 |
4.40 |
5.29 |
| 360.yahoo.com |
1.13 |
1.29 |
1.38 |
| www.bebo.com |
0.98 |
0.77 |
0.73 |
| www.tagged.com |
0.92 |
0.97 |
1.17 |
| www.classmates.com |
0.83 |
1.01 |
1.30 |
| www.hi5.com |
0.78 |
1.06 |
1.19 |
| spaces.msn.com |
0.75 |
1.29 |
1.41 |
| www.sconex.com |
0.64 |
0.70 |
0.81 |
| www.gaiaonline.com |
0.57 |
0.50 |
0.50 |
| www.bolt.com |
0.52 |
0.43 |
0.21 |
| www.friendster.com |
0.46 |
0.53 |
0.58 |
| www.orkut.com |
0.30 |
0.33 |
0.30 |
| www.myyearbook.com |
0.26 |
0.25 |
0.24 |
| www.crushspot.com |
0.18 |
0.18 |
0.18 |
| www.migente.com |
0.16 |
0.18 |
0.19 |
| www.tagworld.com |
0.13 |
0.14 |
0.14 |
| www.faceparty.com |
0.02 |
0.02 |
0.03 |
| www.xuqa.com |
0.02 |
0.02 |
0.04 |
| Source: Hitwise, 2006 |
All parents need to take a
serious look around these websites before you let your children
participate.
*
Sexual solicitations from strangers are a fact of life for MySpace.com
bloggers.
It is the No.1 site for teen social networking and "if
teens are there, predators are there too,"
said John Shehan of the National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children's Exploited
Child Unit.
*
If you decide to allow
your child to participate, make sure you help them set
“Myspace” privacy feature. This only allows approved “friends”
access to their information and photos,
and keeps their profile from being posted for the general
population
*
Check out this and all
websites before your children sign up.
*
Talk to your child
about online safety
*
Keep your eye on where
and what they are doing online.
Recent News from Wikipedia about schools restricting the use of
myspace.
Many schools and public
libraries in the United States and the United Kingdom have restricted access to
MySpace because it has become
"such a haven for student gossip and malicious comments".[23]
A Catholic school in
New Jersey has even prohibited students from using MySpace at home,
on MySpace or similar
websites or face suspension.[25]
The school claimed that
this action was made to protect its students from online
predators.[26]
On July 28, 2006 , the
United States House of Representatives passed a controversial bill
requiring libraries and
schools receiving certain types of federal funding (E-rate)
to prevent unsupervised
minors from using chat rooms and social networking websites,
was approved by a 410-15 vote
and is pending approval in the United States Senate.
.
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