We all have many concerns when it comes to our privacy.  There are so many things to think about when it comes to identity theft or being hacked when using public Wi-Fi or wireless routers.  But do parents of young children think about what could happen if their children are given total, unsupervised access to the Internet?  Judging by some of the things I see and read, I don’t think they do.  Children as young as 8 years old are being allowed to log onto the Internet with no parental supervision, which means that these parents either don’t realize that this can put their children in danger, or that these parents refuse to believe that their children will find dangerous places on-line.

Do Not Talk to Strangers

There was a time back in the 60s and 70s when parents were criticized for using the television set as a babysitter.  Busy parents would sit their children in front of the television to watch cartoons while they did their daily chores.  The children would be occupied for hours watching their favorite characters get into all kinds of mischief while mom and dad did the yard work, cooking and cleaning.  Today, instead of the television, more and more parents are sitting their children in front of the computer to occupy themselves on the Internet.  The cartoon characters that the children of the 60s and 70s watched got into a lot of trouble, but those characters never enticed the children watching to come join them.  With the Internet, it’s a completely different story.  There are sites that children are finding that allow them to talk to random strangers.  These strangers sometimes will get the children’s trust, then will get the children’s personal information like full names, addresses and telephone numbers.  You wouldn’t allow your 8 year old to walk the streets of a large city alone, would you?  Well, allowing your 8 year old to “walk” the Internet alone is just as dangerous.

The solution isn’t as simple as not having Internet service.  Because of budget cuts, schools all over the country are turning to the use of e-textbooks because it’s just too expensive to buy new books each year for each child.  In order to access these e-textbooks, students must log onto the schools’ websites.  Here, they can not only study, but they can also get extra help with their homework from teachers who volunteer to tutor.  In other words, today, having a computer with Internet access is a necessity for all students, from elementary school through college.  Since parents also need to use the Internet for various personal and business projects, it’s not uncommon for each member of the household to have their own computer.  Each computer is not only Internet ready, but each one likely has a webcam built right in.  It’s dangerous to allow a child to have a computer with Internet access in his or her own room, but the combination of Internet and webcam makes it all the more dangerous.   There are parents who will not even allow their children to walk to a school that may only be a block or two away, but they will feel it’s perfectly all right to allow those same children to be alone on the Internet.  Parents:  you teach your children not to talk to strangers on the city streets, but now, you need to extend this to the Internet.  Word is spreading from child to child about sites that will let them talk to strangers.  Make no mistake about this; if your child has not yet heard of or found one of these sites, they soon will and you need to be ready for it.

One of these “talk to strangers” sites is Omegle.  The concept of the site was to use the Internet as a meeting place for people who would normally never have a chance to meet in real life.  It is a place where strangers can chat with other strangers from all over the world.  Omegle was created by Leif K-Brooks, an 18 year old living in Brattleboro, Vermont.  The site was up and running on March 25, 2009.  Within one month of going live, there were 150,000 users.  The number of users is not going down and the site is still going strong.  There is no registration necessary to use the site, there is no charge for its use and it’s not monitored.  Yes, there is a disclaimer that says that users must be at least 18 years old, but on the Internet, you can be any age you choose.  That being said, Omegle is one of the more popular sites of very young children.

In the first year or two, Omegle’s chat was done via text only.  Today, users have a choice between text and video.  Mixing a child, a stranger and video chat can be a very dangerous combination.  One young girl’s story comes to mind when I think of children video chatting with strangers:  Amanda Todd.  Canadian teenager Amanda Todd was just 13 years old when she found that she could video chat with strangers from around the world.  She was a pretty girl who liked when boys and even grown men would tell her how beautiful she was.  One day, a man she was chatting with convinced her to lift her shirt and flash her breasts for him.  She did it.  What she didn’t know was that during that brief flash, the man on the other end of the camera took a screenshot of her.  She didn’t realize that one frame of a video chat could be frozen like that.

During her video chats, Amanda didn’t think there was anything wrong with giving her name.  The man who Amanda flashed on camera knew her name, made a page on Facebook showing that he was a boy Amanda’s age and sent her a friend request.  Amanda accepted.  This “boy” told her that the following semester, he would be going to her school and asked her if she could get her friends to accept him as a Facebook friend.  Once he had her entire friends list, he proceeded to send each one on that list the photo he took of Amanda lifting her shirt.  He also sent the photo to the school’s website for everyone to see.  That one moment of what Amanda thought of as teenage silliness made her a target for bullying.  Everyone in the school called her nasty names and not even her closest friends would associate with her anymore.  Amanda was very depressed for months and her parents decided that the best thing to do for the family would be to move.  Things were good for a while and Amanda was making new friends at her new school.  She even made a new Facebook page listing her new school and with a new list of friends.  This is what her tormenter was waiting for.  He again sent her a friend request that she accepted and he sent the photo to everyone on the new list and her new school’s site.  Amanda couldn’t take any more.  She wrote flashcards and used them to tell her story in a YouTube video.  On October 10, 2012, just a few days after posting her video on YouTube, Amanda’s parents found her hanged body.  Amanda’s tormenter has disappeared and has never been identified.

The story of Amanda Todd isn’t the only one of its kind and it demonstrates what can happen to a child when left alone with the Internet.  Children do things on the spur of the moment and think nothing of it, like flashing a stranger.  They sometimes are only thinking in the moment, not of any consequences that their actions might have.  Aside from worrying that they may be inappropriate photos of their children floating around the Internet, parents also need to think about what information their children are giving out that could become a privacy issue.  There have been children chatting on-line, thinking they are chatting with a child their age, so they have given information such as full name, phone number address and school name.  The “child” they thought could be a new pen pal or foreign boyfriend or girlfriend could in reality be a pedophile.  Supposedly, the chat on these sites is anonymous, but that doesn’t stop people of any age from freely giving out information.  Not only do some chatters lie about their ages, they also lie about their locations, so one who is thought to be living in Asia could really be right about the corner.  Even with only a name, someone could look that name up on Facebook and get all the information he or she needs in order to stalk someone.

In addition to Omegle, there is another site where anyone, including children, can randomly chat with strangers.  The name of this site is Chatroulette.  Once again, a teenager created this site.  He is Andrey Ternovsky of Moscow, Russia, who was just 17 when he came up with the concept.  The idea came to him when he was watching The Deer Hunter.  In that movie, prisoners of war were forced to play Russian Roulette as a way for their guards to find amusement.  Chatroulette is like Russian Roulette because every connection could bring you in contact with a different stranger each time, or you could connect with the one you just ended a conversation with.  This site covers the world just like Omegle, but the one difference is that you need to register to use Chatroulette.  This may seem like it would make it difficult for a child to use the site, but it’s not.  Registration is free, so no credit card or bank account information would be needed.

Unofficially, a study was made on the subject of Chatroulette.  Here is what this study brought to light:

1. Connections with and from people in the US accounted for over half of all connections made.
2. Only 11% of all connections were female, while 89% were male.
3. Many video connections showed nothing but an empty chair.
4. 1 of every 8 connections that showed someone on the other side of the camera was of a naked and/or masturbating person.

Will you still allow your child to use the Internet without your supervision?

One other thing to consider that is very troubling is that both sites, Chatroulette and Omegle, as that you allow them access to your webcam.  A lot of children who have computers set up in their rooms don’t turn them off and always have the Internet running.  Think of how remote access to your child’s webcam can impact that child if the webcam was turned on when your child was dressing for school, or even just sleeping.

Concern has been voiced about these sites.  American psychiatrist, Dr. Keith Ablow, who is also a best-selling author commented about Chatroulette that, “Parents should keep all their children off the site because it’s much too dangerous for children.  It’s a predator’s paradise.  This is one of the worst faces of the Internet that I’ve seen.  It’s disconnecting human relationships rather than connecting them.”  Really, now?

On CBS’s The Early Show, Ernie Allen, President of the National Center of Missing & Exploited Children said that Chatroulette is “the last place parents want their kids to be.  This is a huge red flag; this is extreme social networking.  This is a place kids are going to gravitate to.”

Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovsky was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “Everyone finds his own way of using the site.  Some think it is a game, others think it is a whole unknown world, others think it is a dating service.  I think it’s cool that such a concept can be useful for so many people.”  When asked, he said he was aware of some people masturbating or standing around naked in front of their cameras, but added that this is not a use he agrees with.

Many parents will feel that their children would never know how to find sites such as these, but that’s not the case.  Don’t be so quick to say, “Not MY child” because it’s only a matter of time until your child will hear about these sites from their friends or classmates.  Children are finding and using Omegle and Chatroulette with disastrous results.  The only way to stop this is for all parents of young children to closely supervise them each time they go on the Internet.   Take the computer out of your child’s room and put it in a common area of the house.  Shut it down with a parental password in place when the child goes to bed so there is no temptation to go on-line after the parents have gone to bed.  Even though you know you can’t keep your child innocent until they move out of your house, you still don’t want them seeing adult content when they’re still in elementary school.  If you make a small effort, your child’s privacy, and yours, can stay safe.

For more tips and suggestions on how to keep you and your family safe, please download the free Privacy Guide offered at the top of this page.  You will be glad you did.

The age of social networking is upon us.   There are so many on-line areas where people can meet new friends and reacquaint with old ones that it’s hard to choose which one to sign up for.  That is why so many of us have accounts with several sites.  MySpace, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook are thriving with members in the millions all over the world.  These are the places we connect professionally and personally.  They are where family and friends who live far from you can see photos of the new baby.  These sites are amazing!  But, if a child is left alone on these sites, the results can lead to disaster.

When you have young children, you teach them to never wander far from home and to never talk to strangers, yet many parents don’t warn their children about the dangers of wandering the Internet alone.  This must be done because using the Internet is a big part of any child’s life if he or she is in school.  The Internet is used for studies, but what about when the kids are done studying for the night?  Parents need to learn where the danger lies and monitor Internet use so they can teach their children how to surf the Internet responsibly.

Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others have a minimum age for their users of 13 years old.   At 13, kids are curious, but they don’t have the maturity to make good judgments when it comes to many situations.  They feel that nothing bad can happen to them; it only happens to others.  Lately, in the news, it’s been demonstrated how tragic events can happen to innocent kids that started off as simple Internet posts.  Kids need to learn that some people they play on-line games with are strangers and should not be allowed to know about their lives.  There are many parents who feel there is no harm in allowing their child to play games like Cityville, Castleville or Farmville, but do these parents know who their children’s “neighbors” are?  Do parents realize that kids can go to the on-line gaming community to find “neighbors” from all over the world?  Every day, kids are “friending” strangers; these strangers are most likely adults.  If you warn your kids about strangers in real life, why not warn them about strangers in the virtual world?

In the 60s and 70s, parents were said to have a “live-in babysitter”…the television set.  Now, in 2012, parents no longer use the television as a babysitter; they use the computer and social networking.  There is a huge problem with this:  on-line, anyone can be what they want to be!  A 13 year old girl can claim to be 21 and an aspiring actress, a 14 year old boy can claim to be a 30 year old doctor and a 56 year old man can claim to be a 16 year old.

In the 1990s, the chat rooms of America OnLine were the place to be.  Technically, a person was supposed to be 18 years old to be able to access the adult chat areas and no one over 17 was supposed to access the “teen” areas.  Well, remember that on-line, you can be anyone you want to be.  There were teens in adult areas and adults in teen areas.   I worked with a person whose husband enjoyed “playing head games” with teenagers.  This was a 46 year old man who made two profiles:  one was a 16 year old girl and the other was a 16 year old boy.  When he went on line as the 16 year old girl, he would chat with the “other girls” about such private things as their dating habits and how they were coping with PMS.  When he went on-line as the 16 year old boy, he would try to pick up the young girls.

This man’s wife thought this was very “amusing”.   She would come to work and talk about how “clever” “Joe” was to be able to fool these kids.  What he was doing was wrong on a lot of levels, but one of the most disturbing facts of this was that this couple had a 16 year old daughter.  This is how he was able to talk to the girls about cramps and other problems of PMS; he learned from his daughter.  I once asked my co-worker how she would feel if a middle-aged man would talk to her daughter like this, she had no response.  She also had no response when I asked how she would feel if her husband got caught up in an FBI sting for pedophiles.  After a while, she stopped mentioning “Joe’s” on-line adventures.  I don’t know if he stopped or if she just realized it was not something to be proud of.

As mentioned before, social networking sites have a minimum age of 13 years old.  That does not stop the kids from lying about their ages.  In fact, many parents help their kids make profiles showing that they are 13 years old or older.  There are many kids I personally know of who are 10 or under who have their own Facebook pages.  They tell their parents that all of their friends have pages, and the parents give in.  It’s an old trick, but it still works.  The account is set up and the kids are left to explore.

Microsoft has recently announced its plans to add an automatic Do Not Track feature to the newest version of Internet Explorer.  Until now, users would have to choose to enable the Do Not Track feature.  On Version 10, Do Not Track is a default setting.  Ironically, the Do Not Track feature isn’t acknowledged by Microsoft’s ad network.  In other words, even when users choose to enable the feature in their browsers, they are still tracked.

There are advertisers who do not agree with Microsoft’s decision.  They are of the belief that since Microsoft has aided in the development of Do Not Track standards, it agreed that this should not be a default feature.  In fact, many advertisers are expected to make a choice to ignore any Do Not Track indicators.

There are also those who believe that Microsoft’s decision to make Do Not Track a default setting is a portion of the company’s plan to hurt Google’s successful online advertising.  In fact, to try to compete with Google, Microsoft at one time tried to purchase Yahoo.

The announcement by Microsoft came as a surprise to many.  The World Wide Web Consortium is developing Do Not Track policies.  According to Aleecia M. McDonald, who is co-chair of that agency’s Tracking Protection Working Group, the organization didn’t know there was going to be an announcement of this kind until actually it happened.

Ms. McDonald, who is also a privacy researcher with Mozilla, sees Microsoft’s action as a reason to come to a determination on the issue now, rather than wait for a later date.  Alex Fowler, Mozilla’s privacy and public policy lead person does not agree with Microsoft’s plan.  He references the World Wide Web Consortium’s latest Do Not Track report that states that in order for Do Not Track to work, it must be based on users’ preferences.  Making it a default setting would take the control out of the end users’ hands.  In fact, Fowler wrote in a blog post, “If DNT is on by default, it’s not a conversation.  For DNT to be effective, it must actually represent the user’s voice.”

Anyone who uses a computer has heard the term “IP Address”, but what exactly does that mean?  What is an IP Address?

An IP Address, or Internet Protocol Address, is the digital “address” assigned to every device connected to the internet. Internet Protocol is the technical standard that should be followed while using the internet.  This protocol was developed in the 1970s.

There are two versions of IP that support the computer network addressing.  They are:  Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).  The most commonly used version is IPv4.  With this version, the IP Addresses are four bytes (or 32 bits) long.  IPv6 is the newer version, which allows IP Addresses of 16 bytes (or 128 bits) long.  Whichever version is used, the IP Address has two main purposes:  host or network interface identification and location addressing.

IPv4 addresses are typically shown in a “dot-decimal” sequence.  They are made up of four parts, using numbers that range from 0 to 255.  Each part is separated by a decimal (or dot) and each group consists of 8 bits.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for coordinating the global pool of IP Addresses and then providing them to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) so they could be assigned to end users, including internet service providers.  The main address pool used by IANA was depleted on February 3, 2011.  This is the date that the last blocks were assigned to the 5 RIRs.

IPv4 addresses were depleting so rapidly due to the explosive growth of the internet, that the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was forced to look into new technologies in order to expand the address capacities.  The solution they decided on was to completely redesign the Internet Protocol.   In 1995, IPv6 was named as a means to replace IPv4.

The “Download Your Information” tool was first introduced by Facebook in 2010. This was used to retrieve all users’ videos and photos, wall posts, sent and received messages, and about 5 other categories of information that users uploaded. Downloadable as a .zip file, users were able to make a back up of what they have previously uploaded to the social networking site.

Privacy issues about Facebook’s access to private information and its advertising services prompted critics to ask the company to improve the tool. They urged the company to let users know of other information that it stores about them in its database. The aim is for users to become conscious of how much data they have shared so that they could have more control over it.

The privacy plan of the Obama Administration is getting the attention of a wide sector of society. In fact, the White House is at the center of the controversy. After the announcement of the plan last week, debates over online privacy has once again heated up.

In the said proposal, different entities that are related to online activities have been called to work as one. The government now calls on those internet companies, law enforcement agencies, privacy groups, and state attorneys general. They are encouraged to forget their individual interests for a while and to collaborate. They are given a common objective – to come up with voluntary standards that would protect consumer data to the highest degree.

There are apprehensions that the Obama privacy plan could threaten the internet. Privacy advocates hope that this is going to be a good one. Others say that the United States will soon have a privacy law that, hopefully, is one that supports innovation and gives more user protection.

On March 1, 2012, Google’s new privacy policy will go into effect. This new policy replaces all other privacy policies that were in place on all of the different Google products and services. It will affect all information stored on every Google account you may have. Also included is all information stored after the March 1st implementation date.

As of now, your Google Web History stores a record of every site you visit and every search you make. In the past, the Web History was a separate entity from all other areas of Google. Now, under the new privacy policy, all Google services will be combined. Your searches tell a pretty complete story about you, including your hometown, health concerns, age, sexual orientation and more, so you really should keep it all private.

In order to stop Google from combining your Web History with your Google + or YouTube activities, you must get rid of all searches that are in your Web History. Also, you need to stop activity from appearing on your Web History in the future.

If you value your privacy, follow these steps to clear and pause your Web History:

Sign in to your Google account.

Then, go to https://www.google.com/history

Click on the “Remove all Web History” button.

The last step is to click on “OK”.

When you remove the information from your Web History, you are also pausing it. Until you enable this again, your Web History will remain paused.

Google keeps all information in your active Web History for an unspecified time period. But, if you pause your Web History, your information will be cleared in about 18 months. Pausing, or disabling, the Web History will stop the search results that are generated specifically for you. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) offers advice and suggestions on how you can limit the quantity of information Google keeps on you in its guide, Six Tips to Protect Your Search Privacy .

If you are like most people, you have several Google accounts. If this is the case, you need to remove the Web History, following the above steps, for each account. Just keep in mind that removing and pausing your Web History will not prevent Google from gathering your information for internal use. Also, if any information is requested by a law enforcement agency, Google must supply it.

The Philippines needs to move quickly on the approval of the cyber crime laws that would effectively deter organized crime syndicates. It was disclosed by a top Philippine National Police (PNP) official that the country appears to be a favorite sanctuary for this breed of criminal. These groups have been involved in cyber pornography, illegal online gambling, cyber sex dens, credit card fraud, and identity theft. The official said that criminals are taking advantage of the “weak laws and poor technical know-how of law enforcers”.

A report said that cyber crime mafias, who are mostly foreigners, are gradually making the Philippines their base of operations. According to the top official, the PNP at present has no organizational and technical capability to fight cyber crimes. These syndicates use sophisticated technology, while law enforcers fall behind in terms of training and equipment. In fact, he said he has asked for support for immediate organizational and technical capability in order to build-up the concerned unit.

The arrest of a foreign national hacker in the country exposed the wide network of cyber crime. There are mafias working behind the operations of illegal online gambling and credit card fraud activities in the country. The operations of these groups seem unhampered as evidenced by the fast growth of their connections.

We know that young children need to be protected online, but who should take responsibility over their safety? Parents and government have always been trying to find answers to these questions. In the middle of controversies about online safety for children, the fact remains that there is a need to safeguard them. Children enjoy too much freedom in today’s internet technology. They can gain online access from anywhere – at home, on the street, or in the schools. This exposes children to possible harm because of their fascination in interacting with the technology.

Participants in a free discussion, mostly between concerned groups, shared various observations. One research result showed that 60% of 12- to 15-year-old children use the internet on their own. This leads them to the internet’s prime danger – exposure to pornography. Their inquisitiveness could start with access to sites that show offensive images. They would then start to explore for more images, until they become addicted to pornographic sites.

This age group of children is the most susceptible to risks and they need to be protected. At the same time, these children need to use the internet to make use of the huge abundance of knowledge that it offers. To solve this problem, children should follow some regulations in their interaction with the online world. It appears that parents have the best qualifications as delegates of regulation over their own children. Complicated online safety technology for children can never replace the parents’ authority.

Social networking sites are always looking for ways to offer new features and services. There is a competition in giving better online experiences to their users. From time to time, controversies arise about privacy issues, which have always been resolved. Facebook, Twitter and Google+1 are very popular sites and were created to cater to all groups of users. Almost anybody, regardless of age, can make friends with anyone else and from anywhere in the world.

MyYearbook is a relatively new social networking site that is now gaining wide popularity among teens. This site was created for teens ages 13 and up who want to meet new friends online. Its creators were two high school students, brother and sister David and Catherine Cook, and started in 2005. The two asked the help of their older brother, Geoff to help them with their project. This site was finally launched at Montgomery High School, which was the school they attended.