Top Ten Tips for Web Safety

MAKE YOUR OWN CODE OF CONDUCT
Do not simply adopt this advice as a set of rules. Talk to each other about what is sensible and why. Everyone's views matter in this and debate helps raise awareness of the real dangers and reduces panic about unlikely ones. The result of your discussions should be a set of guidelines for your family or your school that everyone will understand and support.

DONT GIVE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS TO STRANGERS
Never give out detailed information that allows anyone on-line to work out exactly where you live. You would never give your address, phone number or email address to a stranger at a bus stop either. Neither would you tell them what valuable things you have in your home, so be careful if you put photographs taken in your home (or someone else's) onto the Internet. You shouldn't show anything of value in your images.

ARE THEY FOR REAL?
In the same way, if someone at a bus stop told you they were a film producer you would not believe them right away. On-line people at the other end of an email are not always what they seem either. Someone claiming to be "she" and 14 could be "he" and 40. This may not matter, but think carefully before starting a conversation or developing a relationship.

DON'T RESPOND TO BAD MESSAGES
If you come across messages that are deliberately provocative, obscene, racist, illegal, threatening or that simply make you feel uncomfortable, do not respond to them. In doing so you would be opening a conversation with the person who posted the message. If you met someone in the street saying these sort of things provocatively it would probably be wise to ignore them too.

SOUND THE ALARM
If you receive a message that makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, talk about it with people you trust and forward the message to your Advisory Teacher with a note about your concerns.

ASK "IS IT TRUE?"
Just because it comes out of a computer doesn't mean it is true! Be skeptical of information on the Net until you have identified its source. Seemingly credible stories can be invented and circulated for many reasons (for example to start a rumour).

SURF IN GOOD COMPANY
Put computers in social areas. Our own (and our friends') social rules and habits are a good check of our behaviours if they can see what we are doing. In schools don't place monitors facing the wall, in homes get computers out of the bedroom. It will be worth the move for the discussion around the screen that will result. Obviously if computers in school were behind the bike sheds they would be used in a different way to computers in the foyer! Think about location.

BEWARE OF MEETING WEB "PALS"
Never, ever, ever arrange to meet as a result of an electronic contact unless parents and / or teachers are fully aware of what is happening and agree. If you do meet, make sure the first meetings are in a public place with plenty of friends / parents / adults that you know present too.

REMEMBER! THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING
Be aware of the size of your audience. The world is watching what you do. Avoid writing things that will give offence to readers or to the person you might be writing about. Your writing should still be exciting for others to read though, and if it is you will see your readership grow all round the world!

REMEMBER! PEOPLE SOLVE PROBLEMS
Remember that it isn't technology that will solve problems, it is people and the ways that they agree to behave. Remember also that being sensible about the problems discussed here is a small price to pay for the vast and exciting world the Internet offers us. Not all books are good, some are appalling, but reading is still worth doing. Sometimes the telephone is misused, but we still value the 'phone. The Internet is no different. Enjoy it!