KEYfamily
Harmful Contents and Most Recurrent Risks
As defined by Safer Internet Plus, dangerous contents for minors may be subdivided in the following categories:
Illegal material - pornography involving children, racism, fraud, illegal drugs, terrorism support;
Harmful material – adult pornography, violence, adult language soliciting the use of weapons, extremist fringes;
Other risks related to contents – false or misleading information, political confidential sources, intentional violence false.
Child access to sites that display harmful and illegal contents seems to be more frequent in the 10 New Member Countries compared to EU15: 21% against 17%.
The possibility for this to occur increases with age, just as a child’s independence in relation to the world of computers increases simultaneously.
In addition to the contents defined as harmful, there are other risks resulting from illegal demeanor. They are:
theft of personal data, fraud, phishing
Phishing is a type of spam that may lead to theft of personal data, such as bank data and access passwords. This activity generally takes place with masked e-mails that seem to come from legitimate websites (e.g.: banks, insurance companies, telephone companies, ISP’s, etc.). These e-mails solicit the receiver to provide specific data in order to “update security measures” or for other reasons. If this takes place, the fraud is perpetrated.
No private or public body requests personal data by e-mail!
transmission of viruses, worms and spyware
These contribute to the destruction or the illegitimate disclosure of information stored on the PC, and may enable other people to enter and manipulate data on one’s PC.
psychological harassment, virtual bullying
When certain individuals find out that in chat rooms or on mobile phones (SMS’s, MMS’s) their interlocutor is a minor, they may begin to harass and threaten them, or use intimidating language to make the child do what they want them to do.
self-installing dialers
Usually “.exe” files, these are software that self-install on one’s PC when certain Internet sites are visited. Once installed, the following time the Dialer will connect to its own number. This means unexpected phone costs that are usually very high.
spam
Spam is nothing else than unsolicited advertisement that may congest one’s e-mail. The contents may be dangerously and more or less explicitly sexual.
In the section Useful Suggestions you may find out how to defend yourself from these risks.
NB: Information provided by Special Eurobarometer n° 250 -Performed by GESTWEB Research
Original document URL: http://europa.eu.int/information_society/activities/sip/eurobarometer/index_en.htm
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