Your Rights and Responsibilities
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Do You Know if Your Safe Online?
You may think you are safe online and know your rights but think again. Did you know that you can be prosecuted from the age of 10? And that blackmail and bullying is common on the net? Here are some ways to protect yourself online and get to know your rights when online. Another helpful website is http://thinkuknow.com/, which offers help and advice when you are online. If you want to contact the police about something that has happened online then go to the http://ceop.com/ , but remember that they are the police with stretched resources so dont contact them unless you have a genuine reason.
The Law
If you have recieved, sent or in possession of inappropriate pictures of someone under the age of 18, you are breaking the law. You can be prosecuted or even arrested for this. If you are found bullying or harrasing online you can also be prosecuted or arrested, even if its something small. If you sexually touch someone who is under 16 you can also be prosecuted or arrested as this is sexual harrasment. The age of criminal responsibility is 10, this means that you are liable for your actions at this age which can mean being prosecuted. Therfore if you are bullying or breaking any laws online you are in trouble. http://thinkuknow.com/Documents/Webcam%20fact%20sheet%202.pdf
Facebook and Twitter
More people have Facebook than the amount of people in the country that your reading this from. Unless your in India or China. Because they have over 1000000000 people.(http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats8.htm) This is a lot of people. To protect yourself from all these people is hard but not impossible. Make sure that you only accept friend invites from people that you know and only display pictures that you dont mind anyone in the world having forever. If you add someone who only has a few pictures of themselves in the same location they may not be who they seem. This is because they could have easily got the pictures off of Google and then pretend to be somone they are not. If you do not know someone online never trust them as they could acctual be a pervert pretended to be your friend.
Protecting Your Details
Most new phones have lots of security, which includes passcodes and face recognition. The very new iPhone 5S has a biometric scanner, which scans your thumb print to unlock your phone. These can make your phone very secure and protect your personal details. If your phone is campable of this type of security make sure you use it as it can keep your details safe if you are mugged. This is important as they could blackmail you by hacking into your social media sites and threatening to do things on your account which you dont want to happen.