Dos and Don'ts on the Internet

In this blog, we discuss the best practices for users to stay safe on the Internet. All Internet users are the participants in a community of netizens. We can each potentially be either a hunter or a prey... neither are good. So at all times, we need to watch that we do not engage in activities that bring harm to others and at the same time protect ourselves from being victimized.

If we genuinely do not wish to harm others on the Internet, we should talk about Internet etiquette (aka. netiquette) . Here are some simple rules of thumb so don't harm others:

• Don't attempt to hack/crack into machines that you are not authorized to have access to
• Don't attempt to create virus', trojan horses, worms, spyware, etc.
• Don't steal - be careful of this. Intellectual property is so often exchanged illegally without knowing. Identities can also be stolen - don't do this.
  
• Don't forward group/chain emails that ask you to forward to at least x number of people or as many people as possible - ever wonder why sometimes email takes so long to get to you? This is largely why.
• Don't send spam.

Here are other rules of thumb to not harm yourself:

• Steer clear of hate literature/propaganda
• Be careful of who you interact with on the Internet. Tell your family who you're talking to. Always make sure someone in your family knows if you're meeting an Internet friend for the first time. Better safe than sorry.
• Be careful of online gambling. It tends to be habit-forming and doing it on borrowed money (like a credit card) is asking for trouble.
  

This isn't an exhaustive list but it's a starting point. If you can think of more codes of netiquette or how regular people can guard their own psyche to protect themselves from harm, please share in the comments section below.