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Cyber Safety

Cybersafety

According to recent statistics nearly 70% of the Australian population are Internet users. A significant proportion of those are children and teenagers. The Internet is a wonderful resource for study purposes and for all forms of research whether it be school-related, social interaction or for entertainment.

However, web site content can be an issue due to the large number of sites containing inappropriate content. Chat rooms can be a problem if the person is ‘meeting and talking’ to strangers on-line. There are a considerable number of documented cases where children and teenagers have been persuaded to meet with on-line ‘friends’ which have had traumatic and upsetting outcomes.

In order to minimize the risk of using the Internet there are a few basic actions that can help:

  • Locate your home computer in a family area rather than a bedroom.
  • Educate the family about the risks of Internet use, particularly chat rooms.
  • Use pretend names when communicating with people other than friends, family or school.
  • Never give out any personal information such as address, school or age.
  • Do not download anything that is not from a legitimate web site.
  • Never click on flashing boxes that promise anything, as more often than not they will download spyware on to your computer.
  • If you keep getting pop-up boxes all over your screen then you should immediately disconnect from the Internet and run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to clean the malware from your computer.
  • Do not open emails if you do not know or trust the person who sent them.
  • Use anti-virus software, anti-spyware software and a personal firewall to prevent your computer being infected with viruses, worms, spyware or any other malicious program.
  • Always disconnect your computer from the Internet when not in use.
  • Ensure that each user of the computer has a separate account and password.
  • Be serious about not sharing passwords.
  • Encourage all family members to have effective passwords (see below).

Guidelines for selecting an effective password:

  • It should be a minimum of eight characters
  • It should consist of a mix of numbers, letters (both cases) and punctuation
  • Where the first letter of the word is I or O use the numbers one or zero instead
  • Use a combination of first letters and numbers to represent words, such as 1 (won), 2 (to, too), 3 (free), 4(for), 8 (ate), b (be, bee), c (see, sea), q (queue), r (are), t (tea), u (you), y (why)
  • Do not use obvious keyboard sequences, names or words in any language, names or words in reverse or with a number before or after.

    • Some excellent sites for further information can be found at: