Karen Rainier

Elective #8

Privacy Online

July 13, 2009

TIPS FOR KIDS TO ENSURE INTERNET SAFETY AND ONLINE PRIVACY

The internet can be a great learning tool, and it can be lots of fun, too! But, you need to be aware of the safety risks when using the internet. There are lots of ways for people to trick you, find you, or find out information about you or your family online, so you need to be careful when using the internet. Here are a list of some tips to keep you safe online, and to ensure the online privacy of you and your family:

1. Parents and teachers want to keep you safe when you use the internet, so talk to your parents or teachers about their rules, guidelines and suggestions.

2. Beware of emails that ask you for personal information- NEVER give out any information about you or your family or friends unless your parent is present and tells you it is OK.

3. Remember to be safe with new online “friends”. Remember that the person you are chatting with or contacting on the internet may not be who they say they are. Do not give out any personal information to online “friends”, especially your phone number or address!

5. Make sure your passwords are secure. Don’t use the same passwords for lots of different websites. A good password is lots of random letters, numbers and punctuation marks and is 9-14 characters long. One way to make a good password is to think of a phrase like “I love my dog Job” and use the 1^st letter of each word, putting punctuation marks in between like this: i?L!m-d.J .

6. Ask your parents to review privacy policies on the websites, social networks, search engines, internet providers, employers, IM providers, blog sites, and online banking and shopping sites your family uses. Make sure these sites are not sharing your information with advertisers.

7. Beware of advertising “scams”. Sometimes the cool-looking ads blinking on the side of a website you are on will seem fun. They might say something like: “test video games and make money”. If these things sound too good to be true, they are…so don’t click on them!

8. Do not download any games or software onto your computer unless your parents have carefully read agreements and checked to make sure there aren’t any “add-ons” that could be installed with the game. Sometimes this is a way for tricky people to install spyware or viruses on your computer which can cause malfunctions or allow other people access to your family’s personal information information.

9. If you use instant messenger, a rule of thumb is: set your privacy settings to only accept messages from friends your age that you know in person. Even then, you have to be very careful when chatting- you still can’t be sure who is on the other end of the conversation. Also, make sure you are kind to others and keep your conversations appropriate- don’t be a cyberbully! If you wouldn’t say something to someone in person, don’t say it online…besides, other people can and do save your conversations!

10. Suggest to your parents that they look into learning how to secure your family computer with free security software that’s available online.