As useful as the Internet is, it can also be very dangerous territory if one is not careful. There are many aspects of the Internet that put children, the disabled, and even those who are not technologically savvy at great risk. Traps someone can unwittingly fall into include cyberbullying, malware attacks, cyber stalking and so much more. Learn about the dangers of the internet Now!
Cyber safety has become a huge part of today’s society, and something that parents need to be vigilant about. This means making sure a child does not put personal information about themselves on the Internet and that they don’t communicate with strangers, or even worse, arrange offline meetings with strangers.
Dangers Of The Internet, Whether a child uses the Internet on a laptop or PC parents should monitor what their kids are doing online, especially if the child is young and/or particularly naive. They should only allow people they know to be able to access their Facebook or MySpace page if they have one.
Another potential danger of the Internet, for one’s child, is porn. There are countless porn sites online and kids can easily stumble across one if they are not careful. For example, any child that wants to go to the White House website must know that the URL ends in .org rather than .com. This is because if one types in White House and adds .com at the end they will come up with a porn site. Often, curious teenage boys will look up porn on the Internet because they are beginning to discover their attraction to women. If they find porn that they want to download, they are very likely to end up downloading a virus onto their computer.
If one is not careful a virus can cause their entire computer to crash. It can also lead to identity theft, credit card theft, and other crimes. This is why it is crucial that a child not download anything from a website that can’t be trusted. Keeping an effective anti-virus software program on the computer and keeping that program updated is one way to avoid these dangers.
Another potential danger of the Internet, especially for young people, is almost any chat room. Sexual predators often lurk in chat rooms to find unsuspecting young boys and girls to hit on. Many times they will pick one child and start chatting with them privately. This is when they are likely to send a child inappropriate pictures of a sexual nature. They often try to arrange offline dates with these children in the hopes that they will be able to perform sexual acts on them. Sexual predators in chatrooms have become such a problem that NBC used to do a show called “To Catch A Predator,” which involved decoys luring men to a location where they think they will be having sex with an underage child.
Teenagers often send each other pictures that are sexual in nature. They do this with their cell phones and many teenage girls have come across an inappropriate pictures of themselves on the Internet that they sent to someone such as a crush or boyfriend. Teenagers need to understand that doing this is a bad idea that can damage their reputation among their friends and classmates. Parents need to concentrate on keeping their kids and teens safe when they are using the Internet.
Remember that Education Is Key when it comes to preventing the potential dangers of the internet
Because many parents didn’t grow up in an era where computers weren’t a regular part of daily life. Some of them may use computers briefly in school or at work, but they may not be as savvy as their children have become. Therefore, one of the most important elements to protecting a child’s safety online is to ensure the parents and other adults in their lives are familiar with the Internet and the potential dangers of the internet and all that can happen there. Parents should set limits on computer use for their children and then monitor that use to ensure the rules protecting them from the potential dangers of the internet are being followed. This is one of the best tools parents have to protect their children.
Today, too many parents leave their children to their own devices when it comes to entertainment. Whether your children are old enough to be left home alone or you are simply too busy to sit with your child as he or she browses the Internet, it is important to always know what your child is doing online and be aware of the potential dangers of the internet. If your child is too young to find his favourite sites online, bookmark them in a browser dedicated to his use to make them easier to find. Keep an eye on the browsing history to see where your child has visited. In addition to browser history, it can be useful to set up an email you share with your child for him to use to sign up for membership sites. Check this address often to monitor activity online.
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