Internet Safety

After researching about internet safety I started to pretty much freak myself out. I realized that there is so much stuff that I put on the internet that could potentially be dangerous. As well as that once you put the information out there it is pretty much out there forever. It got me to start thinking about the information I have out there. It has come to my attention that there are things that need to be changed. I took my last name off of my blog and changed other settings to private.
I think that having a basic understanding of the fact that predators do use the internet to find victims is a very important thing. Although the internet is a very helpful tool in finding information it can also be used for finding information for the intent of malicious acts. When you realize this you will be much more careful in what it is you are willing to put out there on the web.
As I was researching the subject many things came up on internet safety having to do with protecting yourself from the content that will appear when you are searching the web. There are different settings you can set on your browser to help filter out both images as well as words that may be offensive and you’d rather not stumble across. That is something I wasn’t aware you could easily set to your computer.
A lot of the information was for helping to protect your children, but I think you could pass along that information to friends as well as younger siblings in order to help them remain safe. It talked about things such as keeping your computer in a central area, using control settings such as the ones I talked about above, protecting your password (don’t give it out and make it something people would be able to guess), don’t open email attachments from people you don’t know, and communicate responsibly (pretty much if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face don’t say it through some type of media or electronic communication).
I taught my little brother who just turned 18 about internet safety. I gave him advice and tips. He didn’t really say anything about it and probably thought I was being over-protective and stupid about the whole thing but I’m sure eventually he will realize that I know some of what I’m talking about.