Internet: The Internet is a linking of computer networks. Think of each network as a neighborhood in your town. You can speak with the neighbor next door or across the street by simply walking next door. By using the roads within your neighborhood you can walk to or drive to any other neighborhood in your city and speak to anyone. Now think of the Internet as the electronic roads and interstate expressways that connect all the neighborhoods of your city, state and the world. This connection via the digital roads makes it possible for anyone with access to the Internet to visit, chat or speak with anyone else connected to the Internet. It makes the world an online global village.

Chat Room: A chat room is a type of virtual park. A chat room allows people from anywhere in the world to visit the same virtual park. Depending on the provider of the chat room it can contain anywhere from one to a thousand people. Usually chat rooms are named for the content that will be discussed in the chat room. Names like Gardening, Home Repair, or Classic cars. Unfortunately some chat rooms are created for illegal purposes and children may find their way into these chat rooms. Most service providers will close these rooms upon notification of their existence.

Instant Message (IM): An instant message is a private communication between two people online using a chat client. If I am in a chat room and type something, any in the chat room can read the message. This means if there are a hundred people in the room ninety-eight other people may read the message. By using an instant message only the person I sent the message to will be able to read that message. It is a form of private, one on one chatting (which allows a sexual predator access to potential victims).

Email Message (e): An email message can take several forms. I can send a basic typed message which is very similar to hand carried postal service. (sometimes referred to as “snail mail” because of the speed or lack of speed of the delivery) An email message can be about any subject. An email message can also include an attachment. This attachment can be a picture or a series of pictures. The pictures can also be embedded in the email message which allows them to be viewed in the body of the email message and does not require the download or use of another program to view the images. An email attachment can also be a movie. The movie can be from a digital movie camera and show family member at a gathering. Or the movie could be pornographic in nature. Email messages can also contain hyperlinks to other content. This content may be a website, a picture, a movie, or possible some content that would be harmful to your computer. Links within an email message should always be treated as highly suspect in nature.

Website/Webpage (page): A website is a type of electronic or digital store front. Using the Internet you can browse through these “stores” and view the goods for sale or trade. Some store fronts are only informational and will provide assistance with homework, research, or medical questions. Just as some store fronts in real life can be located in dangerous areas of our communities, store fronts on the Internet can be dangerous. They may link you to other store fronts with content for sale that you never asked for or wanted to view. These store fronts can be the source of dangerous or malicious computer programs designed to steal personal information, infect your computer with a virus, or acquire remote access to your computer. The best advice for visiting any digital store front is to type in the name of the store front yourself. Do not trust links from emails, or another digital store front.

File: A file is the term used to describe many things within a computer or the digital world. A file can be just words, or a mixture of words and pictures. You can determine what type of file it is by looking up the file extension (the letters after the period).

Trojan: A Trojan is a computer file that seeks to sneak into your computer or onto your website and allow certain unauthorized activity to take place on your computer or website. The Trojan file maybe received in an email, downloaded from a website, can be disguised as a picture or audio file sent during a chat or instant message conversation, or it can be obtained by using digital media from another person or computer system. Such as borrowing a homemade compact disk, floppy disk or thumb drives. Once the Trojan is installed (on you computer) it can caused many things to happen. Some are the destruction of data, the copying of data, and or the allowing of remote access to your computer via someone else on the Internet. The use of updated anti virus and firewall programs can greatly reduce the risk of being victimized by a Trojan.

Spyware: Spyware is software that is installed on your machine surreptitiously. Sometimes without your knowledge, or hidden within the end user agreement form in a manner that you may not be aware you gave your permission for the software to be present on your computer. Some of the uses of the spyware is to monitor your use of programs and report back to their manufactures on how or how often the program is used. Spyware can also track your online habits and report back information on your shopping habits. Spyware can also record personal data and report back to whoever created the spyware. There are several free anti-spyware tools that can be used to identify and deal with spyware on your computer. Updated anti-virus and firewall programs can aide in identifying and defeating spyware programs.

Blog or Online Journal: A Blog or Online Journal are websites that allow an individual to “post” or write any information. Most blogs or Online Journals are used to relate the author’s viewpoint on many different subjects. Our children use blogs or online journals as their digital coming out party. Children will open a blog or online journal and then related what is happening in their lives. Information about their day at school, after school activities, girlfriends, boyfriends and the rest of their social life are described in great details. The blog or online journal may allow for interaction from readers. It allows the readers to post replies or their comments on the current state of affairs of the child’s life. As with online profiles, blogs and online journals need to be monitored to make sure the child is not giving out to much information. Some blogs or online journals have contained the child’s full name, address, telephone number, name of school and the date and location where the child could be found at after school activities. Obviously this type of information could be very dangerous in the hands of a sexual predator. Most children have the misconception that whatever they write on their blog or online journal is private and can only be read by people they give permission. This is not always true. There are several free search engines for blogs and online journals that may display what the child thought was private to anyone that knows how to use the search engine.

Profile: A profile is a list of personal information the author of the profile is willing to share. When filling out a profile you must remember that anyone else using the Internet maybe able to see the information in your profile. Information such as your full name, your address, dorm room location, and telephone number can be dangerous in a profile. This type of information may lead to unwanted subjects contacting or stalking you. Information such as your full name and date of birth may lead to you being the victim of identity theft or fraud. Any images placed in your profile should be appropriate in nature. A good rule of thumb for images is; if you would not show it to your mother or grandmother; do not put it on your profile. Remember what is funny or cute to you in junior high school, high school or college may not be funny ten years later during a job interview.

Internet Crimes Against Children:  Technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation; which includes the possession, distribution and creation of child pornography, as well as attempts by individuals to lure and travel to meet children for sexual encounters.

our thanks to the illinois icac for providing the information