Be Web-Safe!

The following information comes from the NZ Internet Safety Group website. Click their link if you'd like more info.

Chat Rooms and Chat Environments

Most New Zealand young people have heard of chatrooms. We'd like you to pause a moment and think about chatrooms - what are they?

If you picture a quiet room with 15-20 people who are all your friends - think again. Picture a party with 500 people, or 2,000 people or 30,000 people attending. Now add to the picture that the room is pitch black so you cannot see what anyone looks like, and voices are distorted so you cannot even tell if they are male or female. That is a truer picture of an Internet chatroom.

Would you walk into such a party and hand out your photo, your home address or your phone number? Of course not; that would put you in a very unsafe situation. It is just as unsafe to give out that sort of information in a chatroom.

This doesn't mean that you can't explore chatrooms. There is the potential to meet some wonderful friends on the Net. Some online friends may live across town from you and some may live in remote parts of countries you have never even heard of before. The Internet Safety Group (ISG) here in New Zealand is urging young people just to keep a few simple online safety practises in mind, then all explorations of the Net will be safe ones.

• Don't give out your photo…
• Don't give out personal information…
• Don't arrange to meet with someone you've met on the Net…

unless you discuss it with your parents or care givers first. If you have left home or are old enough not to need your parents' permission to go to social functions or meet new friends, then talk to your friends before giving out personal information. It is important that those close to you know what you are doing, in case there is a problem. It's just common sense.

Where to Get Help

Sometimes interactions on the Net can take a bad turn. If you feel worried or uncomfortable about something, it is important to talk with someone about it. Maybe you've run across some images that were upsetting. Maybe you gave personal information out to someone who is starting to get very aggressive with you. Maybe you are spending most of your waking hours on the Net and can't seem to stop yourself, or perhaps you are worried about a friend's online actions.

You can send a confidential query from any page of the Internet Safety Group website. If you don't feel you can talk to your parent or caregiver, and you are at school or uni/polytech, there may be a teacher or counsellor there you can talk to. Alternatively, there may be a local group you can call that supports young people. You are not alone, and help is available.

Say what?? Looks legit, sounds legit, but is it?

You will run into a lot of challenging information on the Net. If you are doing a search on an assignment or work project, you may arrive at an organisation's website that looks very professional and sounds pretty informative… at first. There is no critical filter of information on the Net. You need to do that for yourself. That means questioning everything you read.

Hate groups and cults have put a lot of money into developing websites that look and sound 'mainstream'. Interest groups can post information that is biased or sometimes deliberately misleading. Think about what you read on the Net - question it. If your instincts tell you something is suspect, you are probably right. It is good to keep in mind copyrights on material as well. If an author has copyrighted something they have written, it will need to be acknowledged when quoted - just like a passage from a book. The laws about copyright still apply on the Net, whether for text or music.

Harassment & Bullying

22.5% of the respondents of a 'Girls on the Net' survey had felt unsafe or threatened on the Net and for many that came from harassment. It's important toremember that you don't have to keep corresponding with someone who seems threatening. If theyhave your contact details, and are sending messages you don't want, they can be stopped. No one has to put up with that kind of behaviour; it can be very worrying, especially if you don't know who's sending the messages. If you start getting repeated messages, talk to someone you trust about it.

Take a moment and think about the impact of messages you send as well. If you would be uncomfortable getting very suggestive, aggressive messages, so will other people. The person you might send such messages to may actually be younger than they say, and may get upset. Words on the Internet have as much power as words face to face, so be careful how you say things. Even if you mean the messages to be a joke, such 'jokes' can have serious consequences for you as well as the person you sent them to.