The Security Mentor

If you're a parent you're going to worry no matter what -- it's your job. There's always the question, though, of how much to worry and what action to take.

The latest media frenzy is about a blogging site called MySpace where teenagers post online diaries, optionally with pictures. The reason there's a media frenzy is that predators have figured out that this is a gold mine of information, there have been some awful incidents, and the press can't resist a true crime article where they can use the word "Internet".

How to protect your kids without overreacting?

I can't do better than to point you to the advice of Microsoft senior product manager for child safety(*) Linda Criddle, quoted in the Seattle Times. Some of the best points:

• Don't publish anything unless you'd tell it to the creepiest guy on the block. Guaranteed, there's someone creepier than that on the Internet.
• Think two or three times about what's in the photos. T-shirts with school names? House numbers? Street signs?
• Want to post a revealing photo? Ask if you'd walk through the worst part of town wearing the same thing. They have Internet access in the worst part of town.

(*) Does that mean that child safety is a Microsoft product?

UPDATE 3/12/2006:

... some Internet safety experts say that a fear of networking sites has grown disproportionately to actual demonstrated threats, and that there is an unjustified paranoia about the sites.

So says the New York Times, in an article that quotes a 14-year-old explaining (doubtless while rolling his eyes exasperatedly) that most teenagers know perfectly well that posting personal information is as dumb as getting in a car with a stranger.

The rest of the article also helps keep things in perspective.