Take the Nightmare Out of Your PC Experience

The Internet can be a dangerous place for you, your computer and your children. An unsuspecting individual could lose their identity to a Phishing scam or a Spyware program embedded in the computer. A computer could be reduced to a paperweight by a malicious virus. Perhaps the scariest Internet safety concern is what could happen to an unprotected child doing battle with an Internet predator alone in cyberspace. The kids do not have a chance against some of the grooming processes these predators use.

Kids Internet safety should be a major concern for any parent whose child has access to a computer. A person can fix their identity, a computer can also be fixed, but the damage that could be done to a child from an Internet predator could very well be irreversible. The Internet can be a safe place with a little understanding about some of the dangers. Just as you would watch your kids in a playground or park, they also need monitoring when they are playing on the Internet.

Think of the Internet as a little place around the corner.

There is a shady looking character standing on a street corner handing out pornography to anyone that passes him by. Not just handing the stuff out either, he is literally shoving it in their faces. It does not matter who passes by either, kids, male, female, adults, employees, anyone who views a computer screen can be subject to indecent material.

On another corner, there is a predator in the bushes trying to get some children to climb behind the bushes and join him for a little unsupervised chat, if you know what I mean.

Across the street from the man in the bushes is a young woman that is going through every passerby's wallet and purse without them even knowing it, Phishing, sometimes taking money and other times just their information to use at another time. What kind of information do they carry in their purse or wallet? Credit cards, Social Security numbers, addresses, P.I.N numbers, etc. What will this young woman do with all of this information? You do not want to find out the hard way.

Then there are the Spammers. They are invisible little creatures that roam around filling up peoples mailboxes with junk mail. Mail that was never subscribed to, mail that nobody wants or needs. They are fast and sneaky too because the mail never stops piling up in the mailboxes. They are devious little creatures, relentless.

In the middle of every street are the watchers. They are just gathering information from peoples habits; what they buy, what they throw away, who they visit. This information will be sold so that the next time they go shopping, there will be someone following them around popping signs in front of their face telling them that there is a sale on every item that they've ever liked or bought in the past ten years.

Hiding everywhere in the neighborhood are the virus ridden rotten creatures hanging around just looking for an unprotected, unsuspecting person to spread their viruses to. They are constantly mutating their diseases to try to catch people off guard. Sometimes it works and the virus spreads like wild fire and people get so sick that it takes them days to recover from the illness. Other times it is just a slight illness that is spread, something like a mild headache, it does not do any damage but it is annoying just the same. These creatures are out there and they could be coming for your computer if you do not keep it protected.

Although this neighborhood may seem a bit unreal, it does exist, and it has called the Internet and the Internet can be a very dangerous place. The good news is that protection is available but you need to protect yourself. It is not easy sometimes but there are many ways to protect yourself and your children from these Internet safety concerns. The Internet is full of Viruses, Spam, unmonitored Chat rooms where Internet predators lurk, and Instant Messaging programs, Pornography, and Identity Theft but it does not have to be a nightmare.

The Internet can also be a lot of fun and a great resource of information so simply not connecting to it is not a viable option in this age of technology. So what can we do to protect ourselves? How do we ensure that our kids are safe on the Internet? Let us take a walk through this little neighborhood and find out, follow along.