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Old 05-11-2007, 12:15 PM   #10
AnimeSpirit
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You know, I was just pondering where the Internet has gone since it was first introduced to the public and what it has brought to us.

Now, we have every piece of information you could ever need right at your fingertips. You could talk to or play games with people in any country anywhere in the world. You can shop and some even work their job right from home now. The Internet has, in a sense, brought people closer to together all over the world. It tears down barriers put up by time and space that would otherwise stand between us and the world.

Bringing people closer together sounds like a great idea until we are reminded that there are people out there we honestly wouldn't want to be closer to (like our friend, Santabot). There are people whose existance downright repel us because they are different, are misguided, or just generally oppose everything we are and stand for.

People, as a society, still haven't gotten over differences among us. People who do not share our upbringing generally make us turn away. Is it their fault? No more than our upbringing is our fault. Aside from that, it's also true that some of these people repel us because of behavior that we find entirely attrocious.

Take romance with minors, for instance. While I do not condone such behavior here in the states where it is quite illegal, there are places in the world where the age of consent is as low as 12. While I was in Florida, we heard stories in our neighborhood of a foreign man from overseas who moved in. He recently became a U.S. citizen and immediately got into trouble with the law. Why? Because his wife, whom we brought with him from his country, was way under 18. It may not be right to be married to a minor, but in his case, I couldn't really shun him for it.

Of course, there are also people who just simply violent or are sexual predators, which I think is one of the biggest fears of getting online and posting personal data on Myspace. A little common sense is appropriate here.

Here are some simple common sense Internet safety tips that may help you stay safe online:
  1. Never meet someone you met online unless you've known them and spoken to them online for some time (6 months or more) and have spoken to them via other means. Knowing some of their other friends is helpful. This gives you time to gauge their personality.
  2. Don't trust photos that people send you. They may not actually be them.
  3. Despite the bad reputation webcams have been given due to the pornography industry, webcams can be your best friend for identifying someone online whom you may want to meet in person. They cost $20 at Wal-mart and they are nearly impossible to fool, so persuade your online friends to get one and consent to webcam interaction. Yahoo Messenger has a webcam feature that is great for getting to know people and it will show you EXACTLY who is sitting at the keyboard. Sexual predators who wish to keep their identities secret will not consent to this, so it's a good method to filter out potential threats.
  4. Posting your photo online isn't always a bad thing because having nothing but a photo, a sexual predator isn't going to track you down with only that.
  5. Be careful posting an address or telephone number online! E-mail is more secure and if you want to arrange a telephone conversation, send your number through e-mail!
  6. Use nicknames anywhere you can and avoid using any real names!

I may think of more later, but this should do for now. Later!
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