Parents Should Protect Their Children from Social Networking Danger

There is a warning for parents to safeguard their young children from becoming victims of identity theft. Parents need to monitor their teenage sons and daughters while they browse social networking sites so that they do not give out personal information and fall in fraudsters' traps. Webuser.co.uk published this on March 13, 2007. As nearly as 50% of U.K.'s population are considered as victims of spyware; a number of them keep on compromising with Internet safety when communicating on social networking sites.

Webroot Software has prepared a report, which says that while many people are familiar with the terms - viruses, worms and phishing it is their online activity that makes them vulnerable to spyware like keyloggers that record data by tracking the users' keyboard strokes.

The survey by Webroot found that 82% of people who are 18-24 years old regularly visit social networking sites. Parents should not mistake this activity as harmless or completely safe. Failure in recognizing the inherent dangers could put themselves and their kids at risk.

According to Webroot young people could risk themselves by creating new accounts on these sites. Similarly, by chatting on instant messaging and downloading screen savers and games they could expose their computers to spyware threats.

At the time when Internet's social mixing has considerably changed communication, it has also revolutionized online crime, said Peter Watkins, chief executive of Webroot that Webuser.co.uk published in its news on March 19, 2007.

The research report says that the younger people just don't bother about security threats such as worms, Trojans, adware, spyware, phishing and other kinds of online threats that they might stumble over on social networking sites, added Watkins.

Watkins calls on parents to be aware of the latest forms of attacks that could hit their home PCs. They should also know about the consequences of those attacks and what protective measures to adopt. Watkins advises parents to educate the younger generation to take up social responsibility that comes with social networking. He urges them to protect their home computers from various infections, says Webroot Software's report that Clickpress published on March 13, 2007.

Related article: Parents and Kids Cautioned About Facebook Fraud Across UK

» SPAMfighter News - 3/28/2007