| Internet Safety Essay, Research Paper
Parenting Report
Internet Safety
The internet today is a great source of information. It is also known as the super information highway because it is the number one source that people of all ages turn to. The internet is especially a good source of communication between family across the country or even over seas. There are a whole lot of good sides to the internet, but what I come here to talk about is the dangers of the internet and what you can do to ensure the safety of you and your family.
As technology improves, more and more people begin to play with computers, exploring the possibilities. As the people become more and more curious to what the limits are with computers, they begin to break those rules and steal information from other computers on the internet. There are many things that a computer hacker can get from your computer, and the same amount of answers to avoid these situations. Some of these hackers can get personal information off of your computer such as phone numbers, full names, credit card numbers, home addresses, personal letters, and much, much more. To avoid this many things can be done. First, you can store all the personal information, not wanted to be accessed by unknown eyes, on a separate floppy disk or other storage object you might have. You can also buy a firewall from your local computer store to allow you to choose who does and does not access your computer.
Although, your personal information should be concealed from the internet, it is not the most dangerous thing out there. Young children should be monitored at all times when accessing the internet. AOL is a good internet service to have with young children. AOL offers many parent control options to ensure that your child does not view items on the internet less than appropriate for them. AOL offers four different access privileges for every different age group. The four ages groups are kids, young teens, mature teens, and adults. If you choose the kids plan then your child can not instant message anyone on the internet or enter chat rooms. They are also limited to what web sites that they can view. The young teens group sometimes allows chat and limits the web sites allowed to be viewed. They are also not allowed to enter chat rooms. The mature teens group allows the person to send instant messages to people and to enter chat rooms. They can view most web pages except the ones excluded by the parent. They are also not allowed to accept files from other people online to ensure that viruses or trojans can not be placed on your computer. The adult group has no access privileges to any web site. They can also chat in chat rooms and send instant messages. They are also allowed to send and receive files from other people online.
AOL is not used by all persons that access the internet. To keep children from accessing sites that the parents find inappropriate. They can buy an internet watch dog program made by McAfee. This program allows the parent to note which web pages the child should not access and declines any attempt at one of the similar pages. The internet should not be taken nicely. If you allow your children to talk to people online that they do not know, make sure as to tell them not to give any personal information beyond their first name. If you children give away location information it could be dangerous for your entire family.
Web cameras are also widely used in America. They can be used to talk to and see family members around the world. There are also dangers to using the web cam. One of the dangers is that you have to give away your IP address which is the address to your computer. Another danger in connecting in a web conference with someone that you do not know is that they might expose more than wanted to be seen. This could cause conflict in the house if the child did not know this would happen and the parent found out.
The internet can be a fun ans safe place for you and your children. There are many things that you can do on the internet if you take a few precautions before you explore. You can play games and talk to relative that live not so close to you. They internet is also the best source of information from health issues to school reports.
|