How Safe are You on the Internet 1: Personal Safety

If you're reading this, then I'm guessing that you're on the internet right now, right this very second. Innocently, reading these words, skipping ahead and clicking that little “I Like It” button, you know the one. How safe do you think you are? Do you think you're secure? Well think again. Everyone is in danger, there's no way to take that away, but it is possible to prevent you from becoming a victim of it. A potential paedophile may lurk behind every happy hyperlink you click, a suspicious scam hiding behind that attractive advertisement. Are you really, really safe? I'm going to talk in detail about internet safety, and hopefully I'm going to prepare you for anything unwanted on the internet.

IM (MSN, Yahoo, AOL)

Isn't Instant Messaging great? In seconds you can talk to all your friends with a few clicks and some simple typing, and you don't have to go through all the hassle of using the phone or tediously sending e-mails. But how can you be sure they're all your friends?

Check Your Buddy List

How many people on there do you know? How many people do you not know? Do you trust the people you don't know? Why not? How can you be sure that anyone who you don't know isn't a paedophile? One sure-fire way of doing this is making them go on webcam, if they make an excuse such as “Oh sorry it's broken” or “I've lost it” then don't believe it instantly. Also, webcam images can actually be faked, so what you're seeing might not be what is actually there. You could ask your friend (someone who you trust and know in real life) if they know who the person is. Of course, I'm not saying you shouldn't have friends who you don't know in real life, but you should be more wary around them and if you feel uncomfortable with them, block/delete them.

“ASL”?

The term “ASL” stands for “Age, Sex, Location” and is often used when trying to get to know someone. My advice is to never give this information out. Just ask yourself, why are they asking? If they're a paedophile then this is going to be practically everything they want to know. “Are you a child? Are you the opposite gender of me? Where can I find you?” You just shouldn't give it out, it's not safe.

“Zomg dere's a piccy of u naked @ http://somewebsite.com/"

If someone says this to you, then it's most probably a virus. Viruses can take control of a computer and make it send unwanted messages, such as the above. These will usually include a link or be followed by an attempted file transfer. You can usually tell that these are viruses if the URL of the website doesn't end in .jpg, .png, .gif or any other known picture format or if the file they're trying to send is a .rar or .zip or even .exe. There are many variations of this so just watch out, just to make sure you could call your friend to see if they're being serious or not.

Big Conversations

Be careful with these, it's possible to have a conversation between several people at once, and anyone in the conversation can add anyone they want who is on their contact list. This means that people who you don't know may be listening in on what you say. So, either be very careful about what you say, or just leave the conversation. If you wouldn't shout it out in a crowded room filled with people you don't know then don't say it on here.

Reporting

If someone is being sexually “weird” with you or abusing and insulting you then you should report it as soon as possible. To do this just click the button circled in the screenshot below:

And then follow the instructions given. It might also help if you save the offending conversation so that you can use it as evidence.

Social Networking Sites (Bebo, MySpace, Facebook)

Social Networking Sites are great aren't they? They allow you to, um, what do they allow you to do? Oh yeah they let you put up personal information so that you can meet strangers. They let you put up pictures of yourself so that people can see them, and they let you tell other people everything about you. Your profile could be a strangers target.

What Information Should I Give Out?

Well, the safest thing would be to not give out any information. But of course, that takes away the entire purpose of a social profile. Things that shouldn't be too much of a problem are:

• First name
• Country of residence
• Gender

Things which could potentially cause you unwanted abuse are:

• Pictures
• Hobbies
• Full Address
• Last Name
• School you go to
• E-Mail Address
• Mobile Phone Number
• Age
• Sexual Orientation
• Religion

If you have a social profile, look at it. Now. Think to yourself, if you were someone who wanted to stalk/rape/insult you, would you be able to?

Make your Profile Private

This will only take a few seconds but seriously, it'll be worth it. It'll provide so much more security of your online presence. Do it.

Your Friends Profiles

Just because your profile cannot be accessed, some of your friends profiles may be accessible. If you leave a comment on your friends profile such as “Oh yeah Alton Towers is gonna be wicked! Can't wait till next Saturday.” then people will be able to see a picture of you next to the comment and they will be able to locate you, having a time and a place. Just be careful, advise them to make there profiles private too.

Other

Are you a hip and trendy YouTuber? Well if so, do any of your videos have a street sign in them? If so then stalkers might be able to track you down. You might wave it aside as just another piece of useless information, but if someone pieces all the pieces together then they could build up a pretty good portfolio on you.

For further more in-depth information about this here are some pretty useful websites:

Reading Room

Get Safe Online

CEOP

Think U Know

I know, this article may have seemed quite boring to you, but it's important. It's very important that you pay attention to this article, internet crime is on the rise and you need to be secure. Pass this on to your friends too, they need to know (no, this isn't just a way for me to cheekily get more views). The next part of this will be “How Safe Are You On The Internet? Part Two: PC Security” and will be about virus, hackers, firewalls etc. Very interesting.

Thanks for viewing.