But what happens when our children and teenagers are tormented anonymously by their very own peers?

Cyber bullying is the new tyrant on the block. Cyber bullying targets sexuality, physical attractiveness and friendships of our children and teenagers.

Victims do not know what to do or where to turn. Cyber bullies harass victims anonymously. The psychological damage is horrific. The victim's own peers have turned traitorous and there is no where for them to go. Teenage suicides have been linked to cyber bullying as well.

Just last week Facebook followed MySpace with the initiation of protections against cyber bullying. These safeguards against cyber bullying are steps in the right direction.

But of course the real safeguarding begins at home.

What can parents do to protect children and teenagers from cyber bullying?

1. Know what your children and teenagers are doing online. Keep your computer in the center of your home, so you can monitor all activity.
2. Tell your children and teenagers that you want to know if they are being bullied on any electronic device such as text messaging, instant messaging or online
3. Tell your children and teenagers that you want to know if something degrading is being circulated online about them. Pictures are particularly humiliating.
4. Remind your children and teenagers to ignore insulting text messages and IM's. Bullies feed on a response.
5. Keep all emails which are harassing as evidence
6. Encourage your children and teenagers to be an enigma online. Screen names should not expose their gender, personal information or age.
7. Teach your children and teenagers how to use blocking features on cell phones and while online
8. Consider changing an email
9. Teach your children and teenagers to not be a silent bystander. Bullies have far less power without an audience.
10. Teach your children and teenagers to leave a cyber situation that gets heated and uncomfortable
11. Contact your school district about educational programs that are being used to help children and teens deal with bullying both online and on the playground
12. Contact your local authorities about continued harassment. Cyber bullying can be a crime in many states.

Bullies nowadays not only lurk on our playgrounds and street corners but also in electronic gadgets such as cell phones, email, instant messages, Web sites and phone pagers. As parents we have to keep the lines of communication open with our children and teenagers. We can not let our children and teenagers be silenced or humiliated by these cyberspace cowards. Our children and teenagers need to know that they do not have to endure harassment in any form. Our children and teenagers need to know that cyber bullying is illegal in many states.

But most of all, our children and teenagers need to know that support is available and that they are not alone.

If you specify a proxy in Germany, then every single web based transaction will go through that server. As far as the destination website is concerned, you are located in Germany. This can add some delay to the connection, however, since you now need to take an extra hop to get the destination website. E.g.,

Before the connection would go from: your host  destination website

With a proxy in place the connection looks like: your host  Proxy  destination website

Normally, however, if you are using a proxy this is not a problem. Your main concern is privacy rather than connection speed.

Setting up a proxy server connection in your web browser is quite easy. The steps are outlined below:

1. Find a decent public proxy server list. I found this site to be quite useful: 
2. Pick a proxy server that you want to use. This site has proxies available in Poland, Italy, USA, Brazil, etc..
3. Modify your browser's proxy settings to point to the new browser. In Firefox: tools  options  advanced  settings  manual proxy configuration  (enter the proxy IP address under HTTP proxy and click “use this proxy server for all protocols”  click the OK button

Restart your browser and you are now ready to go! If ever you want to disable your proxy server connection just go back into Firefox and reset the connection settings to the previous value (likely Direct Connection the Internet).

For completeness sake, it's worth also mentioning that there are programs that you can buy that automate all this for you. Some examples are ProxyWay and NetAdjust. Personally, I find it more satisfying to manually modify my own browser settings, but I could imagine this programs are also good if you want to auto proxy other apps such as ftp, mirc, etc…

But they forgot to tell us some things! They omitted telling us that an irritating tracking system had been developed parallel to the Internet. The same tracking system that allows malevolent and “bad” coders-hackers to take advantage of specific problems of hardware and software and take over your computer, access vital information and files of your system (access ALSO means DELETION), or simply flood you with spam forever. All this allows otherwise totally legal organizations and companies such as RIAA and similar “patent like” interest protectors, accessing and monitoring files on the internet. So…what they tell us…and are trying to make us believe is the following simple equation:

Illegal content = Bad
Privacy Violation= Umm ... ok!

The worst thing is that the general idea is to be subjected to us in the way of a voluntary privacy violation, so that there's actually no violation. How many times have you ever read the Terms and Conditions of an on-line application setup?

Here you will find some of the best ways to Anonymous browsing, made easy, in order to keep these peeping Toms off your private information and files.

1. Youhide
   A very simple site and one of the most simple ways to surf anonymously on the web. Makes a use of a proxy server and keeps your anonymity fully intact. Also has some extra features to use while surfing anonymously, such as the Removal of Cookies, Ads and scripts.
2. Proxify
   Proxify is a web-based anonymous proxy service that allows you to web-surf securely and anonymously. Just enter a URL (address) in the form and you'll be ready to. Special features for subscribers.
3. Proxy 4 Free
   A pretty cool sum of proxy servers lists that are for use in any way and keep your surfing on the internet totally anonymous.
4. Proxy
   A very cool site allowing you not only to surf the web and by the same time keeping your anonymity, but also with various useful articles and information about your Right to Anonymity, ways Proxy Servers work etc.
5. Torpark
   A browser based on Mozilla's Firefox, implementing a nice simple system that allows you to invisibly connect to a proxy server, then browse to the web page you want. No hustle at all and almost the best way! Made by a group called Hacktivismo and totally free!

Every time a person fills out a contest entry, sweepstakes form, survey application or joins an online community, then chances are the personal information that is used to complete these things are sold, rented or shared with second and third parties without our knowledge.

Most reputable companies or websites will have a privacy statement that explains clearly how they will use the personal information that they collect from their members or customers. Not all websites or companies are reputable, so it is extremely wise to read their privacy statements before handing over any revealing or personal information about you to strangers.

The following websites are extremely useful to help stop big brother from snooping into your personal business and private lives.

1. PGP

   PGP provides cryptographic privacy and authentication that is designed to protect email sent and received between two or more parties from being compromised by outside sources. This is an awesome email encryption program that really works great and is especially useful for sending and receiving important business email.

2. GuerrillaMail

   An excellent way to stop potentially a bunch of unwanted spam from clogging up your inbox is to use GuerrillaMail, so to get a disposable email address to use anytime your personal email address in required. The email expires in 15 minutes, just long enough to send or receive whatever is desired.

3. PookMail

   Stop sharing your real email address with every website that ask for it, but instead make up an imaginary email address using this website. Using this service for a while I have noticed a noticeable difference in the amount of spam that I have been receiving…considerably less. The email associated with your account is cleared every 24 hours allowing you to remain anonymous and still have fun.

4. Anonymous Speech

   Every time you send or receive a traditional email there are companies, governments and private individuals tracking your every move and storing these emails on both public and private servers. Anonymous Speech has an extremely secure email service that continues to provide outstanding email protection long after the email has been sent or received. This company does not share their client's personal information or email access with anyone and that does include government agencies and corporate entities. This program will not disappoint anyone who wants to remain anonymous when surfing the web.

5. Obviously

   This is an outstanding Do-It-Yourself website that shows you how to stop those pesky telemarketing phone calls and how to remove your personal information from marketing mailing lists, so to stop junk mail.

6. Double Click

   This company is the nerve center of digital marketing as the company self describes its self, but in reality, Double Click has probably collected some personal information about every person using the Internet at some point and time. They sell personal information collected to third parties for marketing purposes and the company will share the information that they collect on you with judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders. Have your name and information removed from Double Click servers using the link above.

7. The Cloak

   Hide your web surfing activities from prying eyes and snoops while using this website to surf the net anonymously. The encrypted connection hides your identity from the sites that you are visiting using an http and https anonymous proxy. Your privacy is personal - get it.

8. BeHidden

   Here is another anonymous web surfing search engine that protects the surfer's person identity and web activities from being compromised by nosy webmasters, corporations, and governments. Also, BeHidden can be used to send anonymous email, so to further protect your identity. Awesome site!

9. Government Public Records Database

   Access the same databases as law enforcement and government officials do, so to request a copy of your FBI file. Yes it is true, the FBI compiles records concerning private citizens within the United States and you may be one of the people that the FBI has been watching. Excellent website tool for business operators, too.

10. Snarfed

    This is an outstanding blog about protecting your privacy when shopping on the Internet and what type of disposable credit or debit cards to use and how they work. Not all-disposable credit cards are made equally as some card programs will protect you better than others will. There is a lot of information here on this blog about privacy issues and there is a little something on here for everyone.

Remember, every time that you fill-out a contest or sweepstakes entry form or complete a survey your personal information is being collected and stored in some stranger's computer server somewhere. Each time a person joins another social network ( MySpace, Facebook ) or signs up to participate in an online forum; your personal information is being collected.

What or how these companies use your personal and private information depends on the company doing the collecting. Before doing business with or disclosing your personal information to, be sure to read the company's or website's privacy statement carefully, before disclosing anything to them. If the company or website does not have a privacy statement or the privacy statement looks suspicious, then avoid disclosing anything about you or anyone else to these types of companies and/or websites.