Spam and viruses
How to block them
Spam is irritating for you, but for your children it can have potentially serious consequences.
More than two thirds of email is now spam - the name given to unsolicited commercial email. Once it was dominated by pornography, but now the major use is for a wide range of illegal activity and scams.
For you, it's irritating. For children, it is potentially more serious.
The best way to stop spam is never to give your personal email address out on the net. If you sign up for a service, like a newsletter, you could try creating a special address (your Internet Service Provider ((ISP)) probably allows you to have more than one email address) or you could use a free webmail service like Hotmail or Yahoo!. Even then, look for a message on the website which promises to keep your email address private - this is usually in a section call Privacy Policy. If its an option in the sign-up process, select it. If you have any doubts, don't sign up.
Check out if your ISP filters spam apart from making your life easier, it means you and your family will spend less time online downloading offensive email. Lastly, use software to filter spam. This is especially important with pornographic spam, which often contains lurid images that you don't want your children to see. Never reply to a spam, even to unsubscribe.
Spam is also the main way in which you might catch a computer virus or a worm a program that is sent to your computer as an attachment to an email, installs itself and then copies and sends itself on to other computers, perhaps damaging yours in the process. Anti-spam software is essential, never download email without it enabled and keep it up to date by downloading regular updates which are offered for a fixed yearly fee so that it can protect you against the latest viruses.
What you can do...
- check with your ISP what their anti-spam policies are - don't be afraid to ask questions and make demands of your ISP
- install a filter to check emails for unsuitable content - they can also block senders by limiting incoming messages to only those on from a defined list
- if you do use a free webmail address, choose an address which doesn't make your sex, area you live in, age, or any other info obvious - for example, kate28@freeserve.com will be more likely to get spam than etak@freeserve.com
- companies compile databases for direct marketing from competitions so have a family email address for competitions, or even for requesting information
- remind your children they should never pass on personal information, including email addresses without your permission - and never passwords
- never open attachments from an unknown sender, and be wary of mails from unknown addresses with subject lines that are tempting to open - they may contain a virus or a worm
- never respond to spam, even to unsubscribe - this will only confirm that an address is live
- tell your children not to respond to bullying emails
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