The Importance of Internet Safety

I understand that my target audience may not need to hear this, but in all honesty it needs to be talked about more. We need to be super cautious about what we post online, and who we trust online or even in real life. The Internet can be a powerful tool, but it can also be toxic. So many people share so much online publicly and I just find it all a bit much. Okay, so I'm not perfect either I've shared quite a bit online too, but that doesn't make it any more okay!

There are two main reasons as to why you need to take Internet Safety seriously: general privacy and security. These may seem obvious, but many people sort of brush it off and convince themselves that nothing will happen to them, because they've never experienced any issue before, or that only high profile people have to look out. You can call me paranoid, but I honestly just think we all need to look out for ourselves and be careful. Many things that I may tell you may seem pretty obvious, and you may have been told this 100 million times, but when several people keep mentioning the same thing, it might mean it's quite important to think about.

First and foremost, think about creating a complex password for all online accounts you make and be careful who you share it with. To create a complex password, don't use an obvious word, and mix it up with both upper and lowercase letters. You should also add numbers and in some sites, you are allowed to add special characters to make it even more complex. So, creating a complex password is pretty obvious, and you may be wondering why I am even mentioning this. Well, even though you have heard this 1000%, some people still ignore it. Now, the majority of you won't have your account hacked into, but it is still better to be safe than sorry. Sometimes, the people that do hack into your account are crazy ex's, jealous spouses, friends, or just generally someone that you know. You just never know who is trying to invade your privacy by trying to get access to any account you may have.

Secondly, I think you should be cautious of what you post on Social Media. A few months ago, I took a step back from Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to take time and reflect on what I'm posting and why. I remember in my early teens, I always wanted to get a lot of likes, and I didn't care who followed me because I just wanted the numbers. I never had a huge following, and on Instagram I never even passed 500 followers, but I was just locked in such a superficial way of thinking. I felt like every time I did or saw something even somewhat interesting, I had to share it on Snapchat of Insta Stories. But, what did that bring me? And who actually cared that I had an overpriced hot chocolate at this new hipster café after school. What was posting things like that actually bringing me in life? Now, I am not judging you if you do that, it's just no longer my style to post things like that. My original point, that I wanted to make about social media, is be careful of what you post and who you allow to see. I'd recommend going on all of you social media accounts, look at what you have posted, and your privacy settings to decide what who do you want to see what, and if you like the image you are putting out about yourself on social media.

Don't download or click on anything that seems suspicious. This applies to both websites and links in spam emails. For websites, make sure the site you are on has a little green lock, next to the URL address, and don't make accounts or give sensitive information with those sites who don't. That green lock represents that the website is encrypted, secure, and most importantly safe. I recommend only downloading from sites that have that green lock, and if you are installing something you have just downloaded, uncheck any unnecessary things they might be trying to add to your computer during the installation process.

Going back a bit to spam emails, be careful when you open them and don't click on any of the links. If it ended up in your spam box, it's probably for good reason. Also, if you get an email that you aren't sure about, check the email address. More times than not, they have some ridiculous email address that is just a random combination of letters and numbers, but in some other cases they may look real. I personally keep receiving emails from a group pretending to be the National Honor Society. First of all, I haven't been in a school with a NHS chapter in years, and secondly they try to convince me that I need to pay $100 a month just to be apart of NHS. That is absolutely ridiculous, I know you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount to be apart of it. So be careful, because some scammers are getting better and better at looking like they are a real person, organization, etc.

For me, those are some of the very basics I think everyone should know and take into consideration when it comes to being safe on the internet. Of course, I could go into greater detail and teach you about cookies, VPN's, and encryption, but I think I will save that for later and possibly make a detailed post for each any everyone of those topics. I also have many more projects that I have planned relating to Internet Safety and hackers, like possibly writing a book/short story, and now that I'm thinking about it, a children's book will be cool too... But, I have a busy schedule, so I do not want to get ahead of myself here and give you all false hopes.

Finally, if you are a parent I highly recommend talking to your children about internet safety and having a discussion with them. If you are a parent and maybe you want some advice on what you should talk to them about, well you're in luck because I plan on making another post about that. I may not be a parent, but I spent two years going to 5th grade classes and talking to them about internet safety. Which, isn't that too surprising if you think about it, as I am here also talking to you about internet safety... Anyway, if you're a parent or teacher who isn't going to wait for my post then here is some cool resources made by Google to be Internet Awesome! 

https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/resources