The significance of the Internet has increased in our lives in recent times and we have become more and more dependent on the Net for many of our day to day needs. In the process, we have begun to transact online, spend money online and access our bank accounts online. This has also given rise to an increasing number of incidents of online fraud and other undesirable activities like child porn. The law enforcement agencies are very hard on people who commit cyber crime and the legislature ensures that the strictest of punishments is meted out to them.

Do you share your PC with other people? Are you sure that your PC is not being used for any fraudulent or illegal activity? Are you prepared to deal with the consequences if your computer is found to be used to commit cyber crime? How can you protect yourself from becoming involved in such situations?

The answer is simple. You need to monitor all the activities that takes place on your computer to ensure that it is not being used for any suspicious activity. It is now easy to do this. You need is PC Monitoring software which not affect the functionality of your computer. No one will ever find out that their activity on your computer is being monitored. On the other hand, you will have complete information on how your computer is being used. It is important to invest in a PC monitoring software to protect yourself from being involved in online fraud of any kind.

A new form of harassment seems to be introduced in our daily life: online harassment. A movie star from South Korea committed suicide because of the pressures and malicious comments that appeared systematically about her, online.
The actress was found dead in apartment or on Oct. 2. Police investigations conclusions were that she took her life because of the humiliation that she felt because of all online posting about her.
This tragedy revealed many such cases of suicides caused by harassment in the Cyberspace.

Cyberstalkers (as they were named) use a variety of techniques to harass their victims, including sending hostile e-mails, publishing falsehoods about them in chat rooms and Usenet postings and even posing as the victims in provocative Internet communications and e-mail messages to others.

And the cyberstalking problem appears to be getting worse, experts say. The cyberstalking phenomenon appears to be part of a “migration” of traditional crimes – including threats, child pornography, fraud, gambling and extortion — from the physical to the online world.

Many cases involve ex-spouses, former lovers or estranged relatives, but some cyberstalkers are strangers who have simply taken a dislike to their victims for some reason.

Below you can find 2007 Statistics about online harassment.

Age of Victim 18-30 28% 31-40 24% 41+ 29% Unk 19%
Gender of Victim Female 61% Male 21% Unk 18%
Gender of Harasser Male 39% Female 30% Unk 31%
Prior relationship with harasser? No 56% Yes 44%
If yes, what was the relationship? Ex 31% Online Acq 27% Friend 14% Family 13% Work 7% Roommate 3% Customer 3% School 1% Co-owner 1%
Were there threats of offline/physical violence? Yes 24%
Did victim report the harassment? Yes 59% No 41%
Source: WHO@

However we didn’t found any data here about those under 18 years harassed online. Maybe the parents reported for them, or maybe they didn’t tell anyone about what happened. Anyhow, more and more organizations publish online guides about privacy and online threats. You can find them at a simple web search.

If you notice any changes in your child’s behavior or you just suspect that his online activity can threat his safety, take action. Also if you suspect some of your online activities, take action. Let’s make sure that online harassment meets his fall.

Then, when I was doing some research for today’s article I thought that this issue could be good to discuss about it. And so I discovered that there are parents really concerned about their children activity on gaming and gambling sites.

Many kids use the Internet to play online games. But often when you use search engines to find game sites, you also find gambling sites. Banner ads and pop-ups for casinos are everywhere on the Web. While games sites are free and usually feature card, arcade, puzzle game types with automatic tracking and scoring, gambling sites involve winning or losing actual money.

Due to the nature of Internet, online gambling sites cannot physically check a visitor’s age or prevent them from accessing the site.
However after reading several online releases and visiting online gambling sites (yes I did that to see how `easy` can you sign up), we’ve come up with a list of things that us, as parents, can do to protect our children from online gambling risks.

1. Check where the kids are going online and what they’re doing;
2. Establish rules about what games they can play;
3. Remind them that it is illegal to gamble and explain them how usually gambling works and that it can be addictive;
4. Make sure you check every time they ask you about your credit card number or other personal/financial data;
5. If you use these kind of software, make sure you don’t use the `save password` feature;
6. Create separate profiles for children on your home PCs;
7. Use parental control software.