 Notes, |  Advice | & |  Warnings |
|---|
Sometimes somebody on the Net may ask you for
information your parents may not want you to give out. Always remember, if
thinking about doing something makes you feel uncomfortable, it's probably
wrong. When in doubt, ask.
Note:
Advice:
Warning:
What if they want a password?For some things, like a game on the World Wide Web, it's ok to use something easy to remember like a parent's first name. But if your reputation, your money, or your homework is at stake, play it safe and use something really weird that mixes numbers, upper- and lowercase letters, and maybe a bit of punctuation. Some people develop a system for coming up with passwords that are hard to guess but easy to remember. Just don't tell anyone else your system.
Keeping Secretsmy-secrets that only you (or your system
administrator) can read, by typing:
You can make a whole private directory with the commands:touch my-secrets chmod og-rw my-secrets
If you're not on a Unix machine, keep your secrets on a floppy disk and keep it with you.mkdir Private chmod og-rwx Private
If you really need to keep something secret, find out about
encryption. Warning! Encryption is
illegal in some parts of the world, and in any case may give your parents or
system administrator the impression that you don't trust them.
What if they want my real name?Some people think that the Net is that way. They use nicknames or handles, and don't tell anyone who they really are. As for me, I'm Steve Savitzky and my daughter is Katy, and I don't care who knows it, because anyone who wants to find out, can do it. But ask your parents what they think. And by all means, if you don't feel comfortable giving out your real name, don't.
In any case, treat your password as a secret name, and don't tell it to anybody!
What if they want my address?This section applies to forms on the Web; e-mail is different.Ask an adult to advise you on this one. They may be planning to send you e-mail or snail-mail trying to sell you something you don't need; your parents may object to this. You may have to look in a section labled "for parents" or "for adults" to find out why they want your address; you may want a grown-up around when you do this.
If they don't ask for your street address it's almost certainly safe to tell them the rest -- they may be collecting information about where you're from, but at least they won't be sending you junk mail.
Also, if the people who want your address say they'll keep it a secret and won't sell their mailing list, you can probably trust them. But they can still send you junk mail, unless they say they won't. And many places will come right out and tell you that they'll send you a catalog or a flier. (They'll probably send one every month, but that may be just what you want.) But if they don't come right and tell you what they're going to do with the information they're asking for, ask them or assume the worst.
What if they want my phone number?This section applies to forms on the Web; e-mail is different.Asking for your phone number can be a sneaky way of finding out where you live, and they may call your parents trying to sell them stuff. People who call other people on the phone and try to sell them stuff are called telemarketers (some people call them things I shouldn't write down where kids can read them); they usually call around dinnertime, which isn't very nice. If this happens, get the parent who's best at telling people off to write them a nasty letter.
What if it's too grown-up for
me?
You may have noticed I didn't put a warning sticker
on this one. Many adults have different opinions about what children, and
even other adults, should be allowed to read, listen to, and look at. These
opinions change with time, and vary from place to place. In Japan, people
take baths together and don't worry about seeing each other naked. In some
Moslem countries it's illegal for a woman to show her face in public. Some
people think that certain kinds of books should be burned, or at least banned.
There is no agreement over which kinds of books. Others
(like me) think that burning books is worse than burning people. Enough
said?
What if they say things I
disagree with?
(By the way, an argument over beliefs, opinions, or preferences on the Net is
called a "religious argument" even when the subject isn't religion, which
most people have enough sense not to argue about. Two of the most frequent
arguments on the Net are over which of the PC or Macintosh is the better
personal computer, and which of vi and emacs is the
better text editor.)
As my own mother used to tell me, "it takes all kinds to make a world." Sometimes I wish more people had mothers who told them that.
(Also by the way, a rude or insulting message in e-mail or a newsgroup posting is called a "flame." Flaming is considered impolite. My mother also used to tell me, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.")
What if they send me
e-mail?On the other hand, if you're introduced through somebody you both trust, you're probably safe, and less likely to be surprised. If two 6th grade classes in different parts of the world get together to exchange e-mail, for example, there are unlikely to be any impostors in the group.
What if they want to visit
me?
To visit the author's site for this document,
The author can be contacted by email at:
