The latest trends in social networking have brought pressure to the sites that heretofore seemed to be little more than a free for all to anyone who wanted to participate.
MySpace, Facebook, and various other sites are feeling the pressure to lay down guidelines that protect younger users and they are seeking to meet these expectations to the best of their abilities.
There are several myths about Internet safety, some of which are proclaimed and perpetuated by online predators! It is a well known fact that online you have the same mix of good guys, law abiding citizens, and of course criminals – some of whom have the stated goal of trying to take advantage of children and young adults.
Protecting your identity online is not as hard as sometimes it may appear. There are a number of easy ways to protect your identity online and if you have just a bit of time to invest in getting set up, you will be rewarded with an easy way of remaining safe, secure, and without problems.
It is a well known fact that the Internet contains its fair share of criminals, and a good number of them seek to prey on children and young adults. Parents are of course the first line of defense and even as many are becoming more Internet savvy and seek to safeguard their children, there are some obstacles which simply do appear to be insurmountable.
Parents of teens traversing the Internet in the pursuit of homework help and also social networking know that things are not safe but quite frequently they do not realize just how bad things have gotten. The statistics of online predators are alarming and the Crimes against Children Research Center reports that of children who are online for any reason, about one quarter have at some time been exposed to pornography, even though it was not something for which they searched.
Since social networking sites are here to stay, parents will be wise to work with their kids to help them make good choices when it comes to interacting with friends and also strangers on these sites. To suggest that kids should never enter into discussions with those whom they do not know might be sage advice, but it is entirely unrealistic. To this end, parents applaud the new Internet safety policies on Facebook, especially since the site is seriously seeking to eliminate objectionable content and also posters.
