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﻿Internet Safety

By: Amanda Kelly Is Internet Safety Important? Being safe on the Internet is very important no matter what you are doing online. It is necessary to be cautious and careful about the information that you put on the Internet because once you have put it on there, you cannot stop anyone from seeing it. For example, do not post pictures or comments on the Internet that can create a bad reputation for you, that can hurt other people’s feelings, and most importantly could put you in danger. Make sure that you do not give out your own personal information to anyone on the Internet: your age, birthday, address, where you go to school, any of your passwords, and where you are at a certain time. In any situation when you feel as if you are unsafe while using the Internet, you should always consult someone about it. Teenagers and children should always tell a trusted adult if they receive explicit photos, inappropriate messages, or are continuing to be harrassed by someone through online communication. Overall, always follow the rules that your parents or teachers give you when using the Internet.  Even though everyone who uses the Internet should use it responsibly, there are different ways to be safe depending on how old you are, and what you do on the Internet. Children ages **seven and under** should only play games on the Internet that their parents let them to. They need to make sure that they do not type random words into search columns or the address bar because they could be led to pages that they should not see. It is also very important that they do not click random advertisements because they could accidentially buy something or give out their information without realizing it. Kids from ages **eight to eleven** should be careful when sending, receiving, and forwarding emails.When sending emails, or forwarding them, they need to be sure that they include appropriate content; when receiving emails, they need to be cautious about opening them because the links inside the email could that lead them to bad websites possibly containing viruses. On social websites, such as //Webkinz// or //Club Penguin//, they should not tell the other users their personal information. Preteens and teenagers from ages **twelve to seventeen** should be careful when accessing their social networking site page, and when they communicate by texting. They should be sure that they do not post anything on their social networking site page that they would not want everyone to see, and they should put privacy settings on their page so that random people cannot find out personal information about them from that source. While texting, it is important not to start a personal conversation with someone that you do not know because you could begin to tell them more information about yourself than they need to know. **Young adults and adults** need to be especially careful about who they give their personal information to when doing online shopping with their credit card because someone could use their credit card number to purchase goods with their money. Also, if adults face identity theft, then they need to contact people, such as those involved in their bank or the companies for their email, social security number, and credit card. People in their **seventies and older** should make sure that they are aware of what they are doing on the Internet. Because the Internet has not been around over seventy years ago, older people should make sure that they understand what they are accessing, clicking on, and submitting so that they are not putting themselves at risk by making a mistake.



Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that someone does online with photos or messages, or through the use of a cell phone. Instant messaging is an online form of communication where messages are sent instantly. Email is an online form of communication where someone can send an electronic message through the Internet to people. A social networking site is a website that allows users to create their own personal profile to display publically to other users on that site who are able to access their profile. “A place online where a group of people can get together and chat about a particular subject or just to chat.” Texting is a form of communication through the use of a cell phone where messages and photos are sent to people. Phishing is when a false user, that acts as an employee of a legitimate company, sends someone an email with a link that leads the user of the email to a false webpage that is posing as the webpage of the company, which is able to find out financial and confidential information about the person who accessed it. Identity theft is when someone finds out personal, financial, and confidential information about someone to use for their own good. The information that the thieves can find out about a specific person can be their social security number, driver’s license number, bank account number, user names, and passwords. About 9 million people a year face identity theft. “A crime in which the perpetrator develops a scheme using one or more elements of the Internet to deprive a person of property or any interest, estate, or right by a false representation of a matter of fact, whether by providing misleading information or by concealment of information.” In other words, it is when someone intentiously finds out information about another person by using false information that appears to be true and realistic. A password is a secret word, phrase, set of numbers, or combination that allows users to access their accounts. Passwords are used to log-on to most online communication sites. <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">A bank account is an account that records the funds that a person, known as the depositor, has. The depositor can put more money in their bank account, or take money out of it. <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Harassment is a continued action that someone commits after being notified to stop. For example, if you tell a person who is sending you emails that are inappropriate to stop, and they do not stop sending you those emails, then they are harassing you. <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Sexting is when someone sends, receives, or forwards images that contain nude or nearly nude content through email or through texting. <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Sexual harrassment is when someone advances on someone else unwantedly using sexual contact that involves speaking and physical contact.
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Cyberbullying
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Instant messaging
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Email
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Social networking sites
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Chat Rooms
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Texting
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Phishing
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Identity Theft
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Online Scams
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Passwords
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Bank Account Information
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Harassment
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Sexting
 * <span style="color: #5c995c; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Sexual Harrassment

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Resources Safety Land- [] Dictionary.com- [|www.dictionary.com] The Free Dictionary- [] Picture 3-[] Picture 1-[]