Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Who wants to go Phishing?

     The trust we have in the internet is actually extremely scary if you think about. Everything we post on our Facebook, what personal information we enter into our PayPal accounts when buying from Ebay, to simply paying our bills online. How secure and safe are we really when we put all of this personal information out there into the world wide web?
     Around ten years ago, the term phishing was created to describe the process that thieves use to trick people into giving up their financial information and passwords. To think people are that manipulative and tricky is sad. I know I've received e-mails from "Bank of America" claiming that there was unusual activity on my account and that I needed to click on a link provided and enter my statement information to confirm that it was really me. Of course it had been all over the news that this phishing scam was occurring nationwide so I knew better, but still. Older people who may not be a savvy with the internet and connected to what's going on wouldn't know any better, and end up entering their information and just like that the so called "phishers" just got exactly what they wanted!
addition to these phishers, there’s hackers as well. It’s because of them that the amount of identity theft cases have soared through the roof! People enter their information online, whether on a legit site or not, and hackers are so technologically savvy that they just go right in and get all the information you just entered carelessly to buy those perfect shoes that you wanted so much!
      What it all comes to is just being smart and safe when it comes to personal information. You never know who can get to it, no matter what precautions you may take.

You're a Teenage Guy? So You Must have a Porn Addiction...

     The title says it all. The Dallas Observer posted an article in February stating titled "Too Much of a Bad Thing: Internet Lures Kids into Porn Addiction", which stated basically that the recent increase in use of the internet whether on a computer or phone by children and teenagers has caused a surge in porn addiction, mainly in boys. They go into detail about how middle schools and high schools are the perfect breading groups for aspiring porn producers and directors and their aspiring actors (the young boys and girls). Steve Schultz, a director at a popular porn addiction facility even goes as far to state that , "if a child has a computer or takes a cell phone to bed at night, [he] can guarantee that they're using it for some sexual purpose".
     Now, I don't know about you, but I take my phone to bed with me every night and also tend to take my computer with me as well. I'm also going to go ahead and throw this out there that I am indeed NOT looking at porn, but rather texting friends while either looking at facebook, watching Hulu, or maybe even working on homework. I'm not a guy, but I know plenty of guys that do the exact same thing as me, and as far as I'm concerned, they aren't up all night looking at porn. Maybe playing BlackOps till 4am, but not looking at porn. And to say that middle and high schools are the start of the amateur porn industry? I think that's pushing the limit a little too far. In my 7 years in middle and high school, not once did I hear about amateur porn being made by anyone.
     I will agree with some of what they're saying though. Many children wouldn't have been exposed to porn at such a young age if it weren't for late night TV shows or accidently Googling the wrong thing when researching for a school project. But with internet safety features that parents can install on their computers as well as the safety blocks schools put on, there are definitely ways to get around it!
     To say that the internet is causing the youth of today to have porn addictions and produce pornos I'd say is pushing it a little too far.

Hyper-Speed Dating

      In today's society, who has time for traditional dating methods once you're older? When you're young and in school, you still have the chance to meet people on a regular basis at school or go out to a bar and meet someone, but once you're in the real world, working a real job, with a real life, who has time to go out and actually meet someone face to face? That's why the beauty of internet dating was created. With sites like match.com, EHarmony, and the millions of others out there with their thousands of success stories posted all over their page, it seems like the busy bee's perfect solution to dating!
      If only it were that simple...
      From stalking, to cheaters, to defamation of character, to financial scams, and in extreme cases, physical harm such as rape or even murder, the pros of internet dating rarely outweigh the cons in this situation.
      In November 2009, a young woman invited a man she had met on an internet dating website back to her house, and he ended up hitting her and then proceeded to rape her in front of her three year old son. It's the numerous stories like this that make me wonder what people are thinking putting so much trust into strangers they know nothing about other than what a website that person made tells them. The internet may be knew, but whatever happened to having a little common sense and learning to think through the possible consequences of a situation? Just because you met someone online and have a good conversation doesn't mean you should invite the person to your house. Would you do that if you were to meet someone new at a bar one night?

I didn’t think so.

When the Internet Fights Back



      I found this picture on a websites expressing the dangers of cyber bullying and it really stood out to me. Using the overall color of red really stands out and since red usually has negative connotations (such as with blood), it helps to express that cyber bullying is indeed a bad thing. The use of big, bold, black letters that take up a good fourth of the picture matched with the giant, bolded "no" sign that covers the whole picture also help to make a statement that cyber bullying is bad.
      My favorite part of this would have to be the fist punching through the screen. Cyber bullying is one of those things that many people don't realize how serious it is and how much it can hurt someone since you don't have to see the other person's face when you're hurting them. It's all done through the safety of a screen. Unfortunately, this safety is only one sided, and only really works for the person delivering the bullying rather than receiving it. This fist punching through the screen helps to express the idea that the words and images on a computer screen are just as hurtful as if you were to simply punch someone in the face or the stomach. This picture, although very simple in nature, does a really good job of expressing just how hurtful and harmful cyber bullying is.

Dying to be Thin

      Identity is one of the most important things to a teenager, whether that be having their own identity or more importantly, simply being able to identify with others. But what happens when identifying with others turns into something that could slowly kill them from the inside out?
      Pro-Ana and Pro-Mia websites just might be one of the most disturbing things someone can find on the internet. Pro-Ana websites are created by real people with the disease anorexia nervosa, and Pro-Mia websites are created by people with bulimia nervosa. They support others in the endeavors to be thin in this extreme manner by giving tips, support, pictures, and real life chat/forum support. Just looking through these websites could shock anyone.
      The worst part though? After looking through these websites, I can almost guarantee that you'll probably feel a little down about yourself. I mean, how could you not with everything they're throwing in your face. One website has a Q&A forum where people ask questions such as "I want to become ana, but im worried about death and hair loss.. tips?" to which her response was "WHAAAAT ?! hahaha. sorry is that a joke?" It's these kind of remarks that dismiss the seriousness of these diseases, and potentially make the disease worse for these people who really just need help. Other websites go on to give their top ten tips to losing weight such as these list:

"1. Negative Calorie Foods are your new bestie (google it now)
2. Drink tons of ice cold water.  Ice cold anything is good.  Cold water raises metabolism and burns calories. Also, when you are thirsty, you may confuse hunger for thirst. 
3. Take Caffeine pill or drink something low calorie and caffeinated.  Not only is caffeine great for energy but it is also a natural diuretic so no need for water pills.
4. Exercise often.  If you can’t exercise often try clenching your butt cheeks.  The use of the gluts cause tons of calorie burn and it is easy to do often.
5. Use supplements like Ephedrine or Clenbuterol.  Both raise your body temperature helping you burn calories by doing nothing.
6. Count all calories, even negative calories because they add up.
7. Sleep as much as you can.  It is known that people who get at least 8 hours of sleep a night are 85% less hungry than the counterparts who get less sleep.
8. Eat slow
9. Cut down on sodium.  Try to never add salt to you foods.  Sodium will make you retain water.
10. Always fidget.  Movement!  Any calorie burning is better than none."

 The internet may be a blessing to humanity, but there's two sides to every story.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife

After looking through various blogs over internet safety, two definitely struck me. The first being one titled “How to Protect your Children from Internet Dangers” and the second titled “Internet dangers and how to keep your kids for staying safe”.  
Both these articles drown the reader with pathos, basically scaring the parent’s reading the articles to death with the fact that their children are going to be sexually solicited, as well as watch porn, be harassed, threatened, or even learn how to potentially kill themselves all while browsing the web. These articles may be a little over kill, especially with a claim like “the harsh reality is that the Internet is full of criminals who will stop at nothing in their attempts to exploit children in any way they can, and just by doing a simple search on Google, children can end up into inappropriate webspaces that are prime hunting grounds for extremely dangerous child predators”. The internet is full of criminals, really? I’ve been on the internet since I was about eight and have yet to come across a criminal trying to “exploit” me.
There’s also mass amounts of logos added in there through the use of statistics about the dangers of the internet, such as the amount of youth that visit adult websites either on purpose or accident, amount of Facebook users, number of pedophiles on the internet, etc. These only reinforce the fears of the parent’s reading the article that their children are going to get into something extremely inappropriate.
These articles are definitely one sided towards the internet being a horrible place full of horrible people who are only out to get the children and youth of today, and does nothing to praise the great things about the internet. Yes, there are many dangers associated with the internet, but children are being taught at young ages how to deal with these. They may be young, but they aren’t as stupid as their parents may think.

Stranger Danger

Most parents want to think their children are perfect, that they do no wrong, and that they would never be stupid enough to do something crazy like give their name, address, school, or any other identifiable information out to strangers on the internet.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that's just about as accurate as saying the no one under the age of 21 would ever dare try an alcoholic beverage.
          The internet makes meeting and connecting with new people way too easy. There are so many chat websites just for the sole purpose of talking to strangers, or even videoing strangers. There are even websites for young children with chat abilities, such as Club Penguin. May not have been the brightest idea on Disney's part to give young, vulnerable children the ability to chat with strangers, but that's their choice.
I will admit, I've had my fair share of internet stupidity, especially when I was young. Coke Rewards used to have a chat function when I was in sixth grade that me and my best friend at the time would get on to talk. One night though, she introduced me to a boy who claimed to be our age and from Canada named Omar. We talked to him for weeks after that, and eventually he started just talking to me by myself. He complimented me and told me how much he liked me and finally asked if he could meet me and where I lived. Luckily my older brother was there and immediately reported him and blocked him so he couldn’t get into contact with me or my friend again. Now he very well could have been a 12 year old from Canada, but then why would he want to come down to Texas to meet with some random 12 year old girl he had only talked to for about two months? Sketchy? Very, very sketchy.
Me and my roommates also use a website called Omegle to talk to random strangers from around the world that has not only a chat ability, but a video ability so you can see the strangers you're talking to. Although its technically anonymous, I can’t tell you how many times strangers on there give out way more information about themselves than necessary. It's scary how stupid and naïve some people can be when it comes to internet safety.
Think before you type. Please.

Sexual Encounters

The internet isn't just a topic of interest for the common man, but researches and analysists as well. A recent study by three Doctors, Kimberly J. Mitchell Ph.D., Janis Wolak J.D., and David Finkelhor Ph.D., was over the dangers of the internet in terms of sexual exploitations/solicitations, harassment and other unwanted sexual contact for youth while on the internet.
I found this scholarly article by searching through various articles over the dangers of the internet on Google Scholar, and after I verified that it was an actual study by at least one doctor and had all the required parts in the article, I deemed it suitable.
The main point was that they wanted to track the trends from 2000 to 2005 of sexual solicitations and unwanted porn that were being exposed to youth on the internet. They found that although the internet is in fact developing more and more every day since it came into existence, and more and more is being added to its vast amount of information, there is actually a decline in the amount of sexual solicitations on the internet by youth overall, especially with boys and girls of all ages and of non-Hispanic culture and wealthy homes, but there is no significant decrease for less wealthy households and minorities.
From these results, they concluded that the decrease in white, richer homes was due to there being more education available in schools and at home for these children on how to be safe while on the internet and what can happen, resulting in them being more careful with what they do, and from this there needs to be increased efforts for minorities and less wealthy youth to teach them how to avoid the dangers of the internet and how to make safe choices with what they do while online.
This article definitely drives home how the internet has changed over the years since it first came into existence, and although more intense and harmful things are being put on the internet for our children to get into, children are also more aware of these facts at a younger age and how exactly they should go about reacting to these situations. The fact of the matter is is that these children were born into these dangers and already know how to deal with them better than some of the adults of today do.

Creeping like Champs

So here’s a riddle for you: what's the biggest oxymoron you can think of?
Give up? How about privacy on the internet.


You may think that you live in your own little world on the internet; that everything you do and say is only seen by your friends and family. I mean, who else would possibly care about what you do or say on Facebook or forums, right?
Jokes on you- a lot of people.
Many people joke about the term Facebook stalking, most of us with an account do it quite frequently, whether between classes, when we should be studying, at night before bed, it’s just something we do. But what we put on Facebook, and what people “creep” about us on there, is scarier than most of us are willing to admit. The Facebook administrators do their best to keep the privacy settings at the highest levels possible to keep all of our information as private as we want it to be, but in reality, you’re still putting information about yourself on the world wide web, and how private can that really be?
I had the perfect example of this arise tonight actually. My roommate is an adamant Facebook user who adds friends she meets at school and work, updates her status daily, posts new pictures from parties and what not, and she makes the mistake everyday she gets on there that what she puts up there is private, just like most all of us do. She was hit in the face by this fact today when she received a call from her boyfriend saying that her pictures had been taken off of her Facebook and posted on a local gossip site called The Dirty. When she went to look at it, she saw that some guy she had met in a class at school had taken four of her pictures and submitted them asking for what the gossip writer thought of her. People commented horribly nasty comments on her pictures that literally brought her to tears. When we looked into what we could do about it, we came up with absolutely nothing. The pictures were technically fair game since she put them up on Facebook by her own free will and what the people were saying about it was just an opinion, not necessarily defamation of character or anything that serious.
It just goes to show you, you never know whose watching what you do on the internet, and you never know just how safe you are with what you put out there about your own private life.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Identity, Privacy and Safety on the Internet

While looking at the various topics, the area of “identity, privacy and safety” caught my interest immediately. This area deals with how centered life has become around the internet and how dangerous it can be to our private lives by making pretty much anything and everything readily available about ourselves to an infinite number of internet users, as well as making it easier for people to hide behind a computer screen while expressing opinions. This area includes everything from cyber bullying to online predators to defamation of character to identity theft, as well as many other areas.
With each generation of teenagers since the internet came into existence in the nineties, more and more of the daily lives and daily interactions of kids, as well as adults, are made through the internet, whether it be through Facebook, Youtube, AIM, or Chatroulette. Sites such as these make the digital dossiers (any personal information about a person collected on the internet or simply in digital form) and  especially the digital tattoos (any information posted on the internet that can never be permanently removed since its retained even after you delete) into an ever expanding wealth of information that only grows as the kids age and post more and more on the internet about themselves.
Although the internet is one of the greatest technological inventions of the past two decades, it can also be one of the most threatening and dangerous if it’s users aren’t aware of its potential dangers. You never know just whose reading about you from the otherside of the screen.