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Internet Safety: Online activities & their potential consequences
1. Chatting with strangers in a chat room
2. Using a webcam
For a predator, a webcam is the next best thing to an in-person meeting. By allowing people to view your webcam, you are essentially opening the shades to your home or your bedroom and allowing a complete stranger to watch you through that window. Predators will use what they see to take advantage of you. They may record the video you send and post it for the world to see or simply wait and use it against you later.
3. Accepting webcam views from strangers
By accepting an invitation to view live webcams from strangers, you could be exposed to unwanted nudity and sexually explicit video which could be disturbing. Remember, that 16-year-old inviting you to see him is more likely to abe around 50, overweight and hairy!
4. Arranging a face-to-face meeting with someone you've met online
Since it is not possible to know who you are really talking to online, you may be unpleasantly surprised when you discover that person's true identity. Predators arrange meetings with youth for the purposes of hurting, moslesting, raping, kidnapping and even killing them.
5. Downloading pictures from an unknown source
Downloading a picture may big hidden viruses, which may destroy your computer, or place "cookies that allow the sender to track where you go on the INternet, as well as key stroke trackers that may be used to steal your identity.
6. Filling out online profiles
Filling out profiles will allow predators to see personal information about you, such as your real name, phone number, address, school name, etc., and will allow the predator to "find" you in real life.
7. Posting pictures of yourself on the Internet
In addition to allowing anyone to get a look at you, digital photo manipulation can put your face on another body, ni any graphic situatiuon. When such a photo is in the posession of a predator, it can have devasting consequences. The predator might threaten to send the picture to your parents or spread it all over the Internet unless you do as he says.
8. Posting on blogs and social networking sites
Because these popular online features are vitual diaries, they give online predators a more intimate look into your thoughts and feelings. By reading postings on a blog, a predator can get a greater insight into your vunerabilities, likes and dislikes and can "tailor" his message to you. It may take a predator some time to learn about you, but the mroe information you place on blogs, podcasts and social networking sites, the easier you will make it for the predator. The next time you think you have met your online soulmate, consider that it is more likely that you have encountered a cyber predator.
9. Responding to postings that are belligerent or harrassing
These messages are often posted by the author simply to get a reaction. If you do respond, you may open yourself to harassment.
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It’s easy to lie online because a person’s identity can be easily disguised, so you never know who you are talking to. Giving out information to people online is just as dangerous as giving the same information to a stranger you meet on the street, maybe even more dangerous.
2. Using a webcam
For a predator, a webcam is the next best thing to an in-person meeting. By allowing people to view your webcam, you are essentially opening the shades to your home or your bedroom and allowing a complete stranger to watch you through that window. Predators will use what they see to take advantage of you. They may record the video you send and post it for the world to see or simply wait and use it against you later.
3. Accepting webcam views from strangers
By accepting an invitation to view live webcams from strangers, you could be exposed to unwanted nudity and sexually explicit video which could be disturbing. Remember, that 16-year-old inviting you to see him is more likely to abe around 50, overweight and hairy!
4. Arranging a face-to-face meeting with someone you've met online
Since it is not possible to know who you are really talking to online, you may be unpleasantly surprised when you discover that person's true identity. Predators arrange meetings with youth for the purposes of hurting, moslesting, raping, kidnapping and even killing them.
5. Downloading pictures from an unknown source
Downloading a picture may big hidden viruses, which may destroy your computer, or place "cookies that allow the sender to track where you go on the INternet, as well as key stroke trackers that may be used to steal your identity.
6. Filling out online profiles
Filling out profiles will allow predators to see personal information about you, such as your real name, phone number, address, school name, etc., and will allow the predator to "find" you in real life.
7. Posting pictures of yourself on the Internet
In addition to allowing anyone to get a look at you, digital photo manipulation can put your face on another body, ni any graphic situatiuon. When such a photo is in the posession of a predator, it can have devasting consequences. The predator might threaten to send the picture to your parents or spread it all over the Internet unless you do as he says.
8. Posting on blogs and social networking sites
Because these popular online features are vitual diaries, they give online predators a more intimate look into your thoughts and feelings. By reading postings on a blog, a predator can get a greater insight into your vunerabilities, likes and dislikes and can "tailor" his message to you. It may take a predator some time to learn about you, but the mroe information you place on blogs, podcasts and social networking sites, the easier you will make it for the predator. The next time you think you have met your online soulmate, consider that it is more likely that you have encountered a cyber predator.
9. Responding to postings that are belligerent or harrassing
These messages are often posted by the author simply to get a reaction. If you do respond, you may open yourself to harassment.
<<<Go back. >>>Read on.
