Betty teaches you the importance of keeping your OFFLINE identity separate from your ONLINE identity

Betty

Betty
Cyber Defender & Clubhouse Supervisor

Betty learned the hard way about sharing too much information online when rumors she had spread through her online blog upset some of her friends. Since then she has made it her goal to educate everyone about what information is inappropriate or unsafe to share online to prevent others from getting hurt.

As a Cyber Defender, Betty focuses on the most important information you should never share online, your offline identity.

Favorite Quote:

A stumble may prevent a fall
- English Proverb

Favorite Food:

Tea and crumpets

Interests:

Chatting, macrame, collecting teacups

May 19 2009

Safe Online Communication: Forums and Bulletin Boards

An Internet forum, also called a bulletin board or message board, is a Web site where people can have discussions about a specific topic like their favorite video game or sports team. Unlike a chat room, where conversation takes place in real-time, these conversation "threads" become part of the Web site and can be viewed by anyone with access to the forum for as long as the site keeps them up. In this way, they are similar to a blog or comments posted on a social networking site.

Registered users of an Internet forum can start new topics or respond to other users' posts on the site. When registering an account, most forums have you agree to a Terms of Use policy, which explains what you can and cannot post to the site and what they will do about cyber bullying. Violating this policy can get your account banned from the forum.

If you're going to join an Internet forum, be sure to create a safe alias and use good judgment when filling out your profile. When in doubt, sharing less information is always better than share more. For a unique and safe forum avatar, don't share your actual photograph on the site. Use something tasteful and fun instead, like a cool piece of artwork you made.

posted by Betty
topics: Safe Online Communication

May 18 2009

Dana's Slip-up

Unfortunately our Dana was duped by the recent Cyber Villain attack. Lucky for her, we caught it early enough that it doesn't look like they were able to cause much damage to her identity. But to be on the safe side, she's going to stay out of Cyberspace for a while.

While my heart goes out to the poor girl, unfortunately she and I both know that this couldn't have happened without her revealing something she shouldn't have. Dana has a problem with trusting people too easily, especially people in Cyberspace. The Dis Guys took advantage of that last year and now it's gotten her into more trouble this year.

If she's ever going to become a Cyber Defender, she's going to have to learn to be more cautious with other people.

posted by Betty
topics: Miscellaneous

May 5 2009

Netiquette: Chat and Forum Spamming

Forum and chat spam are when someone posts or sends numerous advertisements or unwanted messages. Sometimes they aren't even sent by a real person, but by a spambot. Spambots are automated software that does nothing but send lots of spam messages, and replying to them asking them to stop doesn't do any good.

Forum and chat spam frequently has a lot of links to external sites and is an attempt to steer more visitors to those sites. The text of the spam and the sites it links to can also be completely unrelated to the forum topic they are posted under.

Forum moderators and posting filters do a pretty good job of keeping most spam posts off the site, but they can't catch everything. If you find spam on a forum you can report it to the moderator. If you are spammed on instant messenger, you can block the spammer. Avoid clicking on any links though because they'll probably take you somewhere you don't want to be.

posted by Betty
topics: Netiquette