This is a multipart article on how to keep your family safe while surfing the Internet.  It is meant to be a guideline, to spark discussion and to make informed decisions.  It does not cover all aspects of Internet safety.

Disclaimer: The author of this article mentions many products, some TCS sells, some TCS does not. The mentioning of any product is to provide you with information to make an informed decision.  The comments in this article are the opinion of the author. Not all products are guaranteed to work on every system or be suitable for every family.

The Internet:  Family Safety Comes First
Author:  Jerry Thompson, Updated October 2007

Many of you travel for vacation.  While on vacation you may have visited a large city.  While in that city, you would be extra careful with your possessions and that you would keep a careful eye on your children.  You want them to have a fun and safe time while visiting there.

The Internet is much like a big city.  There are some wonderful places full of shopping, gaming and education opportunities. There is also evil there.  Evil such as Adult Entertainment, Gambling, Drugs, Hackers and Hate web sites, just to name a few.

Yet many of you let your younger family members wander the streets of the Internet without any monitoring or protection.  Adult Entertainment sites are the leading innovators of ways to snag people and get them to their web sites. Once there, it can be difficult to get away.

The purpose of this series is to educate and arm you with the tools needed to protect yourself and your family.

First – The Consequences

This article is meant to be informative and a call to action protecting your family and your data. You DO NOT have to do anything suggested in this article and your computer will be fine, for a while. The consequences of doing nothing are:

• Giving family members (especially the younger ones) an opportunity to see age inappropriate images and to sin through adult entertainment, gambling, exposure to cults, exposure to child predators and more.
• An opportunity to become addicted to any of the above.
• Identity theft.
• Loss of savings/checking funds.
• Credit card fraud.
• Theft of financial information.
• Damaged software due to viruses or hacker attacks.
• Enabling hackers to take over your computer to spread their smut,
• Enabling hackers to spread spam (unsolicited e-mail)
• Losing family photos, student projects or creations, meaningful e-mail
• Slow and unresponsive computer.
• Using or spreading illegal copies of software, music, movies.
• Spreading viruses and damaging other people’s computers.

The Internet can be dangerous place. You need learn and act to the level that is appropriate to your situation.

GO>>

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