The Dangerous of being Online

Being safe online is very crucial to your safety and it has been brought to light over the past few years that people are still being taken advantage of when online and becoming slaves to the internet.

Even when you think you know what’s going on, in a split second, your dignity and your safety can be taken away. This article looks at how safe you are on the internet and what you need to make sure of when you are online, and what you can do to prevent awful things from happening to you. Have you ever received a message from someone who is sending you inappropriate messages or said awful things to you on a voice chat? This kind of stuff happens daily, and some people can become completely oblivious to this, and they just think that this is normal when it isn’t.

Before cyberbullying was brought to light, it was never talked about. We’ve all played video games before whether it be a challenging single-player, or a frustrating multiplayer game and we can tend to get a little mad, but some people can get too invested in what they are playing, and they start to take their frustration out on their opponent and send hateful messages to them. Some can be so out of line that it can lead to a loss of self-esteem and can have a real impact on the persons real life. This type of behavior should not be accepted in the gaming community. I know sometimes we can all get a bit frustrated but there is no need to take it out on someone else who doesn’t deserve it.

Others can make your gaming experience unbearable, constantly killing you, attacking you, and stealing your items, etc. These types of people are called griefers. Griefers constantly harass you. Some of them may even be adults preying on young and insecure kids. Griefers can also manage to track these people down and harass them outside of the game and use various forms of manipulation, for example, they might send their victims threatening messages. Their main goal is to make your gaming experience as awful for their targets as possible. This may make the victim feel unsafe and in danger. This is not ok. The fewer people like this in the gaming community the better.

Even though you may feel safe when you game, in most cases you’re not. To enable a multiplayer experience, companies need or want to collect more personal information from consumers. It can also be quite common for your gaming network profile to be connected to a wider network than you intended. We all need to take our confidential information seriously or it will end up in the wrong hands. Now, if you’re wondering what kind of personal information these companies take, it is everything from names, addresses, credit card information, email, and digital images.

When it comes to privacy settings, it depends on the type of platform or game you are on. Some offer a wide range of options while others offer only two options.

If playing in a large multiplayer environment it may require a certain setting on how you want to talk to others. But if you are playing a single-player game most of the settings are limited or restricted settings but will still collect enough information to be able to send you ads while you play. So, in conclusion, be careful what information you give to these companies because they will track it and keep it for themselves.

Before the internet, child predators targeted children in parks. Now with the introduction of the internet child predators have become more dangerous.

When you are online you must know who you’re talking to because sometimes you think that you know but, you don’t. This can lead you to be threatened, blackmailed into doing things you don’t want to do. This can all be prevented if you make sure that you are safe online.

Where does it start, child predators normally target multiplayer games and begin to add random people online? Once they start talking to these people, mostly young children, they seem nice trying to make you feel safe when you are around them. Some of these people can wait some years before they start to show signs that something isn’t right. Then they can start to manipulate you into sending pictures of yourself that make you feel awful and if you don’t send them these pictures, they threaten you and say that they will hunt you down and make your life hell.

This isn’t right or fair so if you ever feel like something isn’t right let your parents know to make them aware of the situation so they can help you through it. When you first become active online you need to be extremely careful of who you surround yourself with and how you can protect yourself while you are online.

You should always make sure that your parents look through your privacy settings before you go online. If not, you could accidentally put sensitive information out for the entire world to see.

If you’ve ever setup a gaming console or game before then you know that you are prompted with a series of questions asking whether you want to share certain information with either friends of friends, only me, or just friends. Within multiplayer games, these settings become less restricting because it is necessary for you to collaborate with others.  Within single-player games, these settings are more restricting.

This is another way your sensitive information can get leaked. In conclusion, you should always be extremely alert when on the internet and continue to make sure that you frequently check your privacy settings. If not, something could’ve changed within them, and you may end up doing something by accident that you could regret. So, make sure you continue to stay safe on the internet and enjoy your time on it.