Opinion Staying Net-safe
Young Indian netizens need to be made aware of safe browsing techniques and practices.
I am someone who fully enjoys the freedoms that the World Wide Web gives me. But I break into a cold sweat every time I see a child surfing the Net unsupervised. Though I am fascinated by how early children learn to navigate through the Web,not getting lost every inch of the way like people in their grandparents generation,I know fully well that this is a path so full of hidden dangers.
A recent study by McAfee,through Synovate,to find out How safe Indian kids are online? — covering 500 children and their parents across 10 cities threw up some startling results.
As many as 62 per cent of all children who took part in the study were found to have shared personal information online,58 per cent of them had put up their home addresses on the Internet and 39 per cent of them had never told their parents about these online activities. And even more startling was the fact that 12 per cent of the children had been the victim of some kind of cyber threat.
While his clearly shows that young Indian netizens need to be made aware of safe browsing techniques and practices it also highlights the need for software that keep an eye on the kids when the parents are looking the other way. For instance,the McAfeeFamily Protection offers age-appropriate settings as well as filtering of music and online games to keep out explicit lyrics,block online gaming sites. The software can also prevent viewing of objectionable videos on YouTube,encrypted website blocking to stop tech savvy children from using proxy sites to bypass content filters and block specific programmes file sharing networks. Plus it enables parents to monitor instant message conversations and social networking activities,schedule time limits for access to the Internet,pre-approve email accounts and even block emails from unknown sources. The software sends instant email alerts to parents when access to objectionable material is attempted.
While these will be those who say some of these measures are a bit too hard on the kids,the times are such that being a bit too strict as far as Internet access is concerned wont be such a bad thing in the long run. As I have written before,it is also better to let children access the Net only through kid-specific browsers like Kidzui and Pikluk.
Social Networking Hazards
Of late you might have noticed many posts on you Facebook wall which left you squirming in your seat. Some might be personal in nature,claiming you are gay or just plain mad,others might be obscene asking you to take a closer look at something nasty. And,yes curiosity will kill the cat,for one click on these links and you will send the same trashy message to all contacts on your list.
Acting on the same human psychology,on July 23,when Amy Winehouse was found dead,cybercriminals launched an attack hoping to cash in on the grief of the Grammy winners fans. While many got mails with subject matter that would play on their curiosity to learn what actually happened to the singer,anyone who clicked the link only ended up downloading an image or a video,which is nothing more than a Trojan called Infostealer.Bancos. The malware,as the name suggests,gathers confidential financial information from the compromised computer,which is then traded on the online black market. Similar scams were run soon after Osama bin Ladens and Michael Jacksons deaths.
Gaurav Kanwal,Symantecs Country Sales Manager,India,Consumer Products and Solutions,suggest some tips to stay safe in such circumstances:
* Never view,open,or execute any email attachment or click on a URL,unless you expect it and trust the sender; even if its coming from trusted users,be suspicious.
* Do not click on shortened URLs without expanding them first using preview tools.
* Avoid giving any personal information when answering an email.
* Never enter personal information in a pop-up screen.
* Use a free tool such as Norton Safe Web Lite,which warns you of unsafe websites right in your search results and raises an alarm if a website has a potentially dangerous download in it.
* Most importantly,always think before you click!
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