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February 2001 Newsletter:
Staying Safe Online

Staying safe online is a deliberate daily discipline just as getting dressed in the morning. Let's say we have a group of people who all wear blue hats all the time. If only 17 keep their hats clean, the whole group would be known as wearing dirty hats all the time. The same is true with internet safety.

Netizens are all the internet users located all across the globe. Although there are bad situations that an internet user can not know to have avoided, like joining a chat room for two seconds and someone keeps follow you around, most internet problems can be avoided if you take precautions. For example, you lost at an internet auction and someone emails you saying that they have a similar item for much less cost. Chances are 50/50 that this person actually has the item. Why? Because you probably do not have the time to find out where this person lives, in what country, if they are reputable or if they have previous victims. I am not trying to be a skeptic about people. But, how often does someone approach you out of the blue face-to-face already knowing about your particular situation and offering a solution that would personally benefit you? Be cautious.

The point is that every internet user is vulnerable. There is no guarantee that if you do "this and this", you will be perfectly safe. All of us try to do the best we can to stay safe. We use Prevention. We try to prevent our children from getting run over by a car or associating with "bad influences". We use anti-virus software and filtering programs so our computers will work properly and our children will not be exposed to information, ideas, or pictures we disapprove of. Still, viruses infect our computers and we find disagreeable websites in front of our children's eyes. There is no 100% safety net on the internet or in our daily lives.

The bottom line is that every internet user (whether you are a member of a family, an individual, or an employee of a company) is responsible for their own internet safety, those they are in charge of, and for the safety of the entire global internet community. Here is a brief checklist of some of the details that should be in your daily internet routine:

1. Do you remove the contents of your cookies folder, temporary internet files folder, deleted files folder in your hard drive and mail when you shut-off your computer?

2. Do you keep your anti-virus program updated and running whenever you have your computer turned on?

3. Do you monitor the relationships your children have online?

4. Do you use your children's filtering software program periodically to monitor the results from a search from words like "girl, boy, or tiger"?

These are just ideas to generally check the online safety of your family. As you become familiar with each family member's online habits, you will eventually know where each weakness is. You can then put more preventative emphasis in that direction just as you would remind your wife not to leave the keys in the locked car or your son not to leave his bike in the middle of the driveway after school.

Every internet user must take the necessary steps and precautions to maintain their personal internet safety. As you learn, teach others. Internet safety and crime prevention is the first step to reduce cybercrime.

Remember the basic rules of internet safety that considerably reduce your chances of an online problem. Refer to the Safety Guide for a quick review. Make this a family or office practice. Constant repetition will make this chore into an everyday practice.