Webcams are fun aren’t they? While chatting, you can see the person on the other end. It makes the conversations so much more personal than just staring at a screen. Only do webcams with people you know in real life and that you trust.

MSN is a fun way to talk to friends online

I say this because there are people out there who use chat programs like MSN to seduce and kidnap kids and teenagers. What they do is start out by initiating a conversation with you. They could say ‘I see you post on such and such a message board, and you seem really cool so I wanted to talk to you.’ Over time they start asking you personal questions like your address, the school you go to, your phone number, or your picture. Never, ever give these out to people you don’t know in real life. It took my friend from New Zealand and I three years of chatting before we sent pictures. Even then, it was a picture of each other holding a piece of paper with “Hi Kat, it’s Brett.” just to prove it wasn’t someone sending just any picture.

Many of you are saying ‘I’d never do that!’ but it’s a lot easier to get fooled than you think. Those types of people know just how to get through to you. Like I said, I’m not trying to scare you, but it’s really serious business.

One thing you can do to protect yourselves online, yet still be known, is to find a nickname or callsign. This is a kind of internet identity. Although, unlike people who make internet identities to deceive, you’re making it to keep yourself safe.

Try to find something that represents you and find a strange spelling for it. I go by the name DrifterBG. Do a google on the name and you’ll find results that do with me. Drifter because I was trying to find who I was and I would ‘drift’ from one thing to another, and I was switching games a lot. BG is an old secret that I share with a couple of friends from Jr. High, but I’ve shared it with very select few that I’m close to.

Some of my friends are Nethawk, Barneyninja, Chaff67, GSKSP and others. What this does is it allows people to know me, but not be able to trace anything back to who I really am. I rarely reveal my real name to people online unless I really get to know them.

Some people think that because they can’t be tracked, and because there’s no real punishment for their actions, that they can go around being mean, rude, vulgar and stupid. This is why people invented netiquette. It’s internet etiquette; rules to abide by to interact with people. It’s important to remember that you may be staring at a screen, but there is actually a person on the other side.

Rule #1: Would you say it to their face? If you’re about to unleash a comment or an argument with someone, stop and think if you’d say it to their face. On message boards, your arguments are there for everyone to see. Your actions and the words you say can affect how people see you and the level of respect you get.

Rule #2: Be Ethical. That means to keep your morals and principles. Don’t start using racism or vulgarity to annoy. If you’re not sure how to act or react, think of what you would do in real life.

Rule #3: Avoid flaming and flame wars. Flame wars is the term that describes a topic, usually on a message board, that goes from a normal subject and spirals into people yelling at each other for no reason. Having seen and taken part in my share of these, I can tell you that others involved in it will try to rip you apart. Steer clear.

Rule #4: Don’t troll. Trolling is in reference to people who purposefully start fights for no reason. They post messages that they know will get people all in a tizzy and start flame wars. Just don’t do it.

Rule #5: Respect people’s privacy. Don’t pressure people for their information, and don’t keep bothering them or trying hard to find information about them when they don’t want you to. You wouldn’t want it done to you.

Rule #6: Be careful about your tone of voice. 90% of things online is done through text on a screen. When talking to someone, you can tell by their tone of voice if they are joking, serious or just being sarcastic. When you’re online, it’s very, very easy to mistake what the person’s tone of voice is. They could have written it thinking they were being sarcastic, but when you read it you could think they were being serious. It works both ways; you’re trying to be sarcastic but the other thinks you’re being serious.

There are a ton more, but I don’t want to be here all day. You’ll learn as you use the internet more, and more.