Keeping Your Kids Safe From Online Trouble
It seems the more advanced the online technology, the more trickery there is online. It may be hard to believe, but there are people who spend their time dreaming up ways to hack into strangers’ computers to swipe their identities and simply wreak havoc with their files. What is even more upsetting, is that a lot of times these troublemakers target youngsters and it is not their accounts they are looking to corrupt, but the kids themselves. What do online predators actually do? Basically, online predators scope out internet chat rooms, message boards, emails, and instant messaging to find vulnerable children. When they find a likely target, they will contact them and do whatever it takes to capture their attention and earn their trust. For example, they will find out the child’s hobbies, the kind of music they like, and they express an interest in the kid’s problems at home and at school. Then as soon as they have established a relatively strong bond, they will change the nature of the conversation. The safe and mundane topics of conversation will eventually become more intimate and sexual in nature. As a parent, how can you protect your children when they are online? The easiest piece of advice we can give is to monitor your children’s computer use whenever possible. We know that it is not possible to keep an eye on your child 24/7, so here are some additional tips: -Tell your kids in advance about the danger of online predators. Keep an on going dialogue and encourage your entire family to ask questions about online safety. -Keep the computer in a common area rather than in your kid’s private room. -When your child is online, take a seat next to them and watch what they are doing. If any website or email looks suspicious, divert their attention or delete the message together. -Tell your kids not to respond to any emails or instant messages that are from strangers. -Until your children are old enough to truly comprehend the dangers that exist online, do not let them participate in chat rooms or discussion forums. -Likewise, until the kids are old enough, have them use a family email that you can easily monitor. In addition to these tips, there are online tools that will help you keep your kids safe online. To find these tools check out your Internet Service Provider (also called an ISP), which often offers security devices for free. Next, try your local computer store and ask about the types of software they have that will block and filter unwanted messages and websites. And also check out your web browser, which may have parental controls that you can manually switch on and off. Unfortunately, even if you have done everything imaginable to protect your children from online trouble, sometimes a predator will slip through the cracks. If this happens, do not blame yourself or your kid. Take a deep breath and approach the problem with a level and logical head. Some warnings signs to watch for include: -Your child may spend a crazy amount of time online. -You are suddenly fielding phone calls from strangers who are asking to speak with your child, or your child is suddenly receiving packages in the mail from strangers. -Pornography pops up on the family computer. -You notice that your child is withdrawing from his or her usual activities. -You find out that your kid is using someone else’s online account. Finally, there are a lot of helpful services on the internet if your kids do wind up having trouble online. The best advice is to deal with the problem directly and as soon as you can. Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate, specializing in small business development, for Apollo Hosting. Apollo Hosting provides <a href="http://www.apollohosting.com">website hosting</a>, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.
Source: www.ArticlePros.com

The Key To Computer Security - Anti Virus Software
In the computer world today it is important to remember that at every second your computer is at risk of being contaminated with an ugly virus. There are many ways your computer may become infected from e-mail viruses to Trojans. These infections can cause damage to your hard drive, attach themselves to your programs, or can even spread to other peoples computers from your e-mail. It is essential to protect your computer from these invasions by using a good anti-virus software program. There are many different types of infections that can invade your computer some of which include viruses, worms, e-mail viruses, and Trojans. A virus can be transmitted from computer to computer by attaching itself to another program. When the program is running the virus is able to infect other programs or documents. Worms are a computer program that copies itself from computer to computer through the use of computer networks. They are often used to invade security holes in software programs. The latest computer invaders are e-mail viruses. An e-mail virus moves around in your e-mail messages and duplicates as it automatically sends itself to people in your address book, which in turn infects their computers in the same way. A Trojan horse invades your computer by pretending to be a program it?s not. When you open the program, the Trojan wreaks havoc on your computer that can cause irreversible damage. In order to protect yourself from such invasion it is very important to make sure your computer is safe. One thing you can do is to run a more secure operating system like UNIX that can protect your computer from traditional viruses. Another option is to buy virus protection software if you are using an unsecured computer. Avoiding programs from unknown sources, disabling floppy disk booting, and making sure that Macro virus protection is enabled, are also things that can further protect you from invasion. The best option for protecting your computer though, is to invest in an anti-virus program. There are many anti-virus programs like Norton antivirus, McAfee, and PcCillin, and some are even free like Avast and AVG. Anti virus programs work by keeping patterns of virus infected files and compares them to the files stored on your computer. If it finds any viruses you are immediately prompted to delete the contaminated file. Make sure to up-date your anti virus software consistently, which can be done through the Internet and most up-dates are free of cost. If you are going to use the computer it is always best to protect yourself and your precious memories from all the dangerous computer infections. When you invest in a good computer and store your information on it, you are setting yourself up for a potential disaster that many viruses can cause. It is essential that you make sure that your computer is always protected by investing in a good anti virus program. Dave Michaels writes on home and computer subjects. For more anti virus tips visit <a href="http://www.antivirustips4u.com">Anti Virus Program</a>
Source: www.ArticlePros.com

Autoblogger Pro, Content Theft Or Innovation?
First of all, there may be some of you that have never even heard of Autoblogger Pro. So let?s examine this new script. Autoblogger Pro is really a very simple concept. It integrates itself into a Wordpress blog and then uses RSS feeds from news sources and blogs to populate the blog with relevant content. For example, if you want to build a blog that focuses on ?Mortgages? then you would simply locate several blog or news feeds that focus on mortgages and then load them into the admin area of the script. Every time the script is executed it will then pull in the RSS feed from all of the sites you?ve entered, and post them to the blog. In essence, you end up with a blog that contains highly targeted content, blended and unique because it comes from a variety of sources. All maintained by you with the click of a button! (A sample ABP blog can be seen here: http://www.dogs.pn ) Let me say this now. I am an advocate of Autoblogger Pro and I think that it?s a fantastic and logical development of the expected use of RSS feeds. It?s evolution people, and I think it?s fantastic! But this morning I was surfing the web and I happened to do a search for Autoblogger Pro to see what other people were saying. To my shock and dismay I found many sites screaming that Autoblogger Pro users are ?content thieves? , ?content RAPISTS?, ?Scam artists? etc. I found this very disturbing, so I researched a few of their websites to see if their content was in some way being actually stolen. To be honest, I really had to laugh when I looked at most of their sites. Prominently displayed on all of them were buttons for their various RSS feeds, asking for syndication! What exactly did you expect when you put that feed on your site? RSS is defined as Really Simple Syndication. So aren?t you asking that your content be syndicated when you put the feed link on your website??? Of course you are. Either they are too uneducated to understand what RSS is and put it on their sites without knowing what it is, or they are just ignorant or na and believe that only a few people with news readers will use the feed. There?s a very simple solution for this if you?re one of those people crying foul. TAKE THE FEED DOWN. If you don?t want your content syndicated, don?t put up a feed! Now there are some responsibilities that must be held by users of Autoblogger Pro, it?s a very powerful script, and there are options to use it unethically. When syndicating someone?s content you need to give CREDIT to the source. Remember writing term papers in college or high school? You always have to give credit to your sources. Autoblogger Pro gives you the option in it?s configuration to give credit and a link back to every post you get from syndication. USE THIS FEATURE. It?s only right to give credit where credit is due. If this is done properly, all of those blogs you?re getting your content from will stay happy, because they are in turn getting quality links back to their site, from another relevant site, and that in turn helps them in their search engine standings. It may even send them some traffic if your Autoblogger Pro site has some. Like it or not, syndication of content is what RSS was designed for. If you don?t like how your content is being syndicated, don?t put up a feed. But if you see the positives for content syndication you?ll understand that Autoblogger Pro sites will enhance your site, not detract from it. In the long run you?ll be glad to see your content in tons of places on the web! Till next time, Chuck Crawford Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic development and website financial analysis. He has been helping people design and develop their internet business since 1996. This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active. <a href="http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com">www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com</a> <A HREF="http://www.magicanswers.com">www.magicanswers.com</A> <A HREF="http://www.thegiftedone.com">www.thegiftedone.com</A>
Source: www.ArticlePros.com