Internet Safety:
Risks and precautions
During our stay in Calatayud, Spain we had the opportunity to listen to José Manuel Gimeno’s lecture on the relevant topic: Internet safety. His lecture started with an interactive live test which was carried out on our students. While projecting the questions on the screen, he asked the children to raise their hands if their answers were ’yes’. Just to mention some of the questions:
1 Do you surf the net every day?
2 Do you think you use the net safely?
3 Have you got multiple email or social network accounts?
4 Have you got the same password for all your accounts?
5 Is your antivirus program updated on a regular basis?, etc.
After each question they could see what kinds of dangers they normally face while using the net, and they could also drew conclusions. They managed to sum up some of the basic dangers and solutions to them, eg. if you always use the same password, or if you do not log out, or if you do not use the latest antivirus program, you could be in danger on the world wide web.
Next, we watched a part from the online film ’Cyberbully’ which highlighted the risks due to the lack of security. We also checked a short video „Think before you post" after which we concluded that anything we post or share online will stay there and cannot be vanished.
Besides being careful with what you post, you should secure your device: an antivirus program helps you secure your computer but it must be updated regularly. Another important issue is the safety of your email accounts. So you must take the following pieces of advice: do not open unknown messages, secure your password (change it every 30 days, use a combination of letters and numbers, etc.), set up your privacy on social netwok sites and secure your data in public computers.
Magyar Ibolya