FAQ for Parents
Access website with information that might not be suitable for them, including those pornographic, violence and online gambling sites, and those related to illegal activities,advocate taking drugs, poisons or alcohol.
Some children may give out private information, such as credit card information, password, personal information about themselves and family, by filling out forms and entering online contest. Some websites may collect and sell these kind of information for illegal activities, like buying things and charging them to you.
On the Internet, a person can hide their true identity and pretend to be anyone or anything. Children may meet some paedophiles in the chat rooms. They will try to be friend with your children, collect personal information from them and may then arrange to meet your children in person.
Your children may be harassed by online person. They may receive some rude, abusive or threathening email or online messages.
There are some people on the Internet that are keens on breaking into computers, damaging computers of others or spreading malwares. On the other hand, many children are not careful enough or not having adequate security protection of their computers. This will greatly increase the chance of success of the attackers.
Examples of computer crimes include gaining unauthorised access to other computer systems, writing and spreading computer malware to attack other computers and infringing copyrights. Children are easily fascinated by the challenge and excitement gained from hacking.
Listed below are some guidelines on proper use of Internet for your children:
You may consider the Internet as a huge virtual library, with a vast amount and variety of valuable information and knowledge. You should encourage your children to search for and learn useful materials from the Internet to assist in their study and broader their vision. Meanwhile, Internet is also a good place for entertainment. Your children could relax themselves by watching movies, listening to music and playing games.
However, you should also teach them not to believe everything from the Internet since not everything they found is correct. They should learn how to judge and evaluate the credibility of a site and the content, such as from the purpose of the site, the authors and their authority. You are also recommended to surf the Internet with them and provide proper guidance to them.
Moreover, make sure your children do not overuse the computer. Apart from having fun with the computer, your children should have other activities and interests, like sports, family time and friends in real life. Do not let your children be addicted to Internet surfing.
Apart from these, teach them to be careful in Internet surfing, online purchase, email communication and meeting new friends. They should be cautious not to give out private information, aware of the attacker and malware attack and not getting involved in illegal matters.
ICQ stands for "I Seek You", which is a kind of instant messenger application that allows two people to communicate in "real time" over the Internet. Using ICQ, your children could meet new friends, know whenever their friends are online, and can send text messages, files, e-card and so on to their friends.
However, because of its ease of use and simplicity in the design, it may not be secure enough. Some malicious persons may use it to launch attack, steal files or spread malware.
Listed below are some safety tips on using ICQ:
This is not enough! Without updating the PC with the latest malware definition file, it is not protected against new malwares. You should teach your children to update definition file regularly, approximately about once a week or when new signature is released. Moreover, the computer should also be scanned regularly to make your anti-malware protection effective, such as by running a scheduled scan.
If a malware is found, don't be panic! Stop all the activities of the infected machine and clean the malware using anti-malware tools or follow the instructions from anti-malware vendors. When the malware is removed, you can then restore the data from clean backup.
Actually, the best thing to do against malware is PREVENTION. You should make sure your children's PC is installed with anti-malware software and updated with the latest malware definition file. Meanwhile, you should also teach your children to always scan floppy disk, CD and files downloaded from Internet before using them. Moreover, your children should also backup the important programs and data regularly. This is the most secure way to restore the files after a malware attack.
Click here for more information related to malware, such as the latest malwares, types of malware, the ways to handle it and some tips on protecting computers from malware attack.
Some malicious individuals would send email regarding malware-related warning / alert that is untrue, and spread away to as many people as it could via the Internet. We usually call this kind of email as 'hoax'. You may click here for more information on hoax and the ways to identify it.
There are some faked websites that pretend to be popular shops, trying to get your credit card or other personal information. Moreover, there are some 'spoofed' emails which are sent in bulk with deceiving or fraudulent message. Some may even invite recipient to click the embedded links to some fraudulent websites, and deceive them to enter personal banking information such as accounts, passwords and credit card information.
Here are some tips for your children to follow:
Young people are easily fascinated by the challenge and excitement gained from hacking. Hacking into other people's computer is illegal and is a serious crime. You should be aware of the existing laws / regulations on computer related crimes and warn your children of the heavy penalty as well. You may refer to the following locations in this website for more information regarding computer related crimes, such as the types of crime, related ordinances and penalties and some real cases on computer crimes:
On the Internet, a person can hide their true identity and pretend to be anyone or anything. Perhaps they are being nice to your children because they want something. Hence, you should teach your children to treat their online friends as strangers. You should not allow your children meet an online friend in person without your permission or without adult present, at least for the first time.
