Internet Safety

So after doing some research on internet safety I learned some new things about it as well as reaffirming some advice that I already knew but had forgotten about. I shared these with some people and we were able to discuss some things that are good to remember about being safe on the internet and we realized some of the things we need to make sure to do.

• Don't include personal information online, particularly addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, or anything that would give away details about you or your family.
• Review your comments on your blogs or websites to make sure that they are appropriate and that they aren't giving away personal information.
• One that I hadn't thought of much is that you need to be careful what photos you put online. Photos can give a lot of information about a person.
• I also liked the point that said to "assume that what you post on your blog is permanent." This is good because sometimes we just thing that we will put it on there for a while until we decide if we really want it online. We can always delete things, but you never know who will see them before you do delete them.
• Which leads to another point: anyone can read what you post online.
• Another good point I liked was to respect what others have written. Just because it is online doesn't mean that you have to be rude. Don't take those things they have written and just paste them onto your pages.
• Use bookmarks to get to your favorite web pages because "some operators of pornographic Web sites use common misspellings of popular sites or searches in their URLs--their Web page addresses."
• Be careful what you open from the internet. You never know what might be hiding behind an innocent looking pop-up.
• Don't try to unsubscribe from spam, because you'll likely receive more since the spam senders will realize they've reached a valid e-mail address.

The most important point of all of the things I studied and discussed was simply to be careful what you do and put on the internet. You never know who might see it or how they might use it. Just be careful online!

Sources: Fighting Internet Filth, Top 5 Ways Teens Are Compromising Their Identities, Better Blogging, Growing Up Online, and Let Our Voices Be Heard