If you are a new internet user and don’t have any idea of how to protect or surf safely on the internet, these are some tips to keep yourself under safe and to avoid some problems related with copyright, illegal use, ADS, SPAM and the personal information.
• Use caution with your personal information
• Avoid publishing your full name, your school name, home address, email address, mobile or home phone numbers and images, where they are easily accessible by others. Use caution especially with social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace
• Never give out personal details to online friends you do not know offline
• Never post anything you wouldn't want your parents, teachers, or future employers to see
• Remember that once you post information online, you can’t take it back. Even if you delete the information from a site, older versions exist on other people’s computers
• Do not share other people’s personal information or say things that might violate the safety or rights of others, even if you mean it as a "joke"
• Do not share passwords, user names, account IDs or PINs with anyone besides current people
• Remember there are impostors out there who lie about their real identity. Someone you meet on the Internet may not be the right person to share your problems with, not to mention meeting with them face to face
• Never agree to meet someone you only know online
• Never open messages or attachments from someone you don’t know. It could be a virus, or worse - an inappropriate image or film
• Only add people as friends on social networking sites and instant messaging programs if you know then in real life. Set privacy settings so that you have to approve people to be added as a friend
• What you do not do in real life, don’t do on the Internet. This includes all kinds of cyber bulling using text, photos and videos
• Talk to your parents if something feels inappropriate or makes you feel uncomfortable.
Risks
• The risks of visiting malicious, criminal or inappropriate websites include:
• Viruses and spyware (collectively known as malware).
• Phishing, designed to obtain your personal and/or financial information and possibly steal your identity.
• Fraud, from fake shopping, banking, charity, dating, social networking, gaming, gambling and other websites.
• Copyright infringement – copying or downloading copyright protected software, videos, music, photos or documents.
• Exposure to unexpected inappropriate content.
• When you use the internet, your browser (for example Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Safari or Firefox) keeps a record of which sites you have visted in its 'history'.
• When you use the internet, the websites you visit are visible to your Internet Service Provider and browser provider, and it is possible that records are kept.
• Use the Internet Safely
• It is very easy to clone a real website and does not take a skilled developer long to produce a very professional-looking, but malicious site.
• Being wary of malicious, criminal or inappropriate websites:
• Use your instincts and common sense.
• Check for presence of an address, phone number and/or email contact – often indications that the website is genuine. If in doubt, send an email or call to establish authenticity.
• Check that the website’s address seems to be genuine by looking for misspellings, extra words, characters or numbers or a completely different name from that you would expect the business to have.
• Roll your mouse pointer over a link to reveal its true destination, displayed in the bottom left corner of your browser. Beware if this is different from what is displayed in the text of the link from either another website or an email.
• If there is NO padlock in the browser window or ‘https://’ at the beginning of the web address to signify that it is using a secure link, do not enter personal information on the site.
• Websites which request more personal information than you would normally expect to give, such as user name, password or other security details IN FULL, are probably malicious.
• Avoid ‘pharming’ by checking the address in your browser's address bar after you arrive at a website to make sure it matches the address you typed. This will avoid ending up at a fake site even though you entered the address for the authentic one – for example ‘eebay’ instead of ‘ebay.
• Always get professional advice before making investment decisions. Sites that hype investments for fast or high return – whether in shares or alleged rarities like old wine, whisky or property – are often fraudulent.
• Be wary of websites which promote schemes that involve the recruitment of others, receiving money for other people or advance payments.
• If you are suspicious of a website, carry out a web search to see if you can find out whether or not it is fraudulent.
• Be wary of websites that are advertised in unsolicited emails from strangers.







