SURFING
The Dangers Of Going Online
by
Becky Rene
Introduction
1. Hi, my name is Becky. It is 2008 and I am 18 years old. I made this lesson especially for boys and girls who like to go on the Internet. I love children very much and I even have friends who are as young as 5 years old. Now I would not like to see any of you get hurt and so I made this lesson to help protect you from bad things on the Internet. Now I am still a teenager and so I hope you will listen to what I have to tell you.
2. This is a lesson about the good and bad things to do with the Internet. It is a lesson for girls and boys and for parents as well because you need to make sure you protect your children.
3. Now I hope all you girls and boys will listen to what I say because I know what I am talking about and I just want to make sure you do not get into bad things or get hooked up with bad people.
I. The Good And The Bad
A. So let’s talk about some good things about the Internet:
1. The Internet is good because you can use it to help you with your homework and I think a lot of you do that, don’t you? It is very important to make sure you do your homework. Yes.
2. The Internet is good for learning stuff just for fun. So if you are interested in poetry, science, sports, history, or whatever, then you can use a search engine to find some good web sites.
3. The Internet is good for keeping in touch with all your friends. You can use Yahoo Messenger and chat with all your friends or you can write to your friends all over the world by e-mail. You can even make new friends.
4. Now I know a lot of you kids like to play games and there are tons of places to go to play all kinds of games. Some people like puzzles and so you can find places to do puzzles and even coloring.
5. I like to study my Bible and you can even study the Bible online as well.
B. So now we have to talk about the bad things:
1. If you use a search engine to look for something then you will probably get a long, long list of web sites that you can go to…
a. Some of those web sites are very bad because they will have lots of cussing and bad pictures that you must not look at. So make sure you read the little introduction before you go to that web site. If you are not sure, then do not click on that link.
b. But guess what else? Some of those bad web sites can put bad things on your computer without you knowing it!!! Yes. That web site might download a computer virus onto your computer that can totally mess up your computer or steal all your private stuff, like your passwords and e-mail addresses of your friends.
c. Now here is something you should know. Let us pretend you are being a bad boy or girl today and you say to yourself, “I think I will go to one of those bad web sites and no one will even know about it.” Well guess what? ALL COMPUTERS KEEP A RECORD OF ALL THE WEB SITES YOU GO TO. Yeeees!! So that means your parents can check out that record and find out what web sites you have been to. So that is scary, isn’t it? I knew a boy who went to all kinds of bad web sites and he done that for, like, months and he thought, “See, I am going to all those bad web sites and no one knows. Ha ha ha.” But one day, his dad checked out his computer and he found out all the web sites he had been to and then his dad took his computer away.
2. If you chat with your friends using MSN messenger or something like that or by going into a chat room, then you need to know that there are some bad people in those places who try to trick you.
a. Now just think… how do you know that the person you are chatting with is a boy or girl? How do you know if they are a child, a teenager, or a grownup? How do you know if they are good or bad?
1) Now you might say, “Oh, they talk like they are my age.” Well can you talk like a five year old boy or girl? I am sure you could if you try. So just because they write like they are your age does not prove anything.
2) Some of you might say, “Oh, that boy says he is 14 and he even sent me a picture.” Please do not fall for that one because you can get pictures from anywhere. I mean, I could tell you I am Britney Spears and send you a picture to prove it, couldn’t I?
3) Now some of you might say, “Well that boy is a stranger but I can see him on his web cam and so I can see for myself.” But let me tell you how you can be tricked: supposing you are 11 years old and I was a bad girl and I wanted to pretend I was 11 years old to try to trick you into meeting up with me somewhere so I could steal your i-Pod (or maybe something worse!), what could I do? I could use a real 11 year old girl who you can talk to and see on a web cam but I could be hiding out of view telling her what to say to you, couldn’t I? So I could say, “Ok, tell that girl you want to meet her at the mall.” BUT, when you turn up, it is not that girl, it is me instead. Now you might say, “Oh, that would not happen.” Wrong! It does happen.
b. Like I said, I know what I am talking about, I have seen it happen, and I am trying very hard to warn you not to talk to anyone you don’t know. It does not matter what they say, how nice they are, or how much they seem to understand all your problems. They might be tricking you!!! You just can’t tell. So, like you’ve heard a million times before, DO NOT TALK TO STRANGERS.
3. Do you have your own e-mail account with Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, or something like that?
a. Sooner or later you will start to get e-mails that are just total trash. They will be ads that have to do with medical things, pharmaceutical things, gambling, sexy stuff and just tons of other bad things. You must not read them or look at those pictures. No. So you need to set up a junk filter to send those e-mails straight to your trash folder. Do not waste time; ask you mom or dad to do that for you.
b. Here are two other things you need to know…
1) Some e-mails can trick you into opening an attachment and that attachment has a virus that can mess up your computer and steal all your private stuff. I have not got the space to tell you about all the tricks they use but I will give you two examples. But the best thing to do is not to open attachments if you are not expecting one.
a) The e-mail might say, “Oh, this is a very funny picture of you, who took it?” Now wouldn’t you say to yourself, “Hmm, what picture? What are they on about?”? So then you just get so curious and you open that attachment. Big mistake!
b) Or it might say, “Can you take a look at this for me. Thanks, Emma.” Now what if you know someone called Emma, you might open it. But just because it looks like it is from someone you know, does not mean it is from them. So make sure you check the e-mail address it is from. Also, ask yourself if you were expecting something from them.
2) Now a lot of e-mails that are ads have web bugs and malicious code in them. So even if you think, “Hm, I think I will look at one those trash ads to see what they are all about,” don’t do it because those pictures contain links to the ad people’s web site and so they will know that you have looked at their ad and they will keep on sending you more and more. Or there might be a hidden program in that e-mail that does bad things to your computer.
c. So, DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS UNLESS IT IS FROM SOMEONE YOU KNOW AND YOU WERE EXPECTING IT and DO NOT READ ADS BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY HAVE WEB BUGS AND HIDDEN PROGRAMS TO SPY ON YOU OR DO DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER.
II. Be Sensible And Mature
A. Have you ever accused your mom or your dad of not trusting you?
1. I remember when I was first allowed to have a TV in my room… I was soooo excited and I couldn’t wait to watch TV in my room. But mom says, “If you are going to watch TV, I want you to leave your bedroom door open so I can keep an eye on what you are watching.” So I went, “YOU JUST DON’T TRUST ME WITH ANYTHING DO YOU?” That was when I was a little girl but now I am a big girl and guess what? Now I understand what mom was doing. Yes. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust ME, she did not trust the TV people!!! Look at it this way: imagine you had a little sister of 4 years old, would you want her to watch bad things and listen to all kinds of cussing and stuff on TV? Of course you wouldn’t. Now even if you left your little sister alone to watch TV, you just cannot trust those TV people because they might put something bad on and your poor little sister might not even know it is bad. So you should leave the door open so you can keep an eye on what she is watching. That is all my mom was doing.
2. It is the same with your computer. There are so many bad things on the Internet and so many tricky people, and so it is very sensible to let your parents watch over you and put some security stuff on your computer. Your parents are not trying to be mean or spoil your fun or anything like that. No. YOUR PARENTS KNOW WHAT BAD THINGS ARE ON THE INTERNET AND SO THEY ARE TRYING TO PROTECT YOU.
B. Now if you get upset at your parents, accuse them of things, shout at them, have a tantrum, start balling like a little baby, and go stomping off to your room in a bad temper, then you are being very immature, aren’t you? I hope I do not have such a badly behaved little boy or girl. No. Now if you behave like a little immature child, then that is exactly how you will be treated. And if you are that immature, then it shows you cannot be trusted. So if you want to be treated like a mature young person, then you have to behave like one. That is something that I learnt.
III. God Is Watching You!!
A. Now I am not a totally silly girl and so I know that some of you boys and girls will be saying, “Huh! That girl Becky does not know what she is talking about, I am not going to listen to her.”
1. Some of you girls and boys might be tempted to go to bad web sites to look at things that you shouldn’t. You know what I am talking about, don’t you?
2. Some of you are probably talking to strangers and thinking they are genuine when they are not.
3. Some of you are probably downloading music and movies when you know it is illegal (Warning: your computer keeps a record of your downloads and your ISP provider can record your downloads. That’s how you get caught).
B. So you probably think you are very clever because you have not been caught and you think, “I haven’t been caught and no one even suspects that I am doing these things. Ha ha ha.” Now I could tell you all kinds of horrible stories about kids just like you who thought they were so clever and how they got into serious trouble and even got hurt, but I have decided not to scare you with stories like that. Instead, I am hoping you will think about these things…
1. Maybe your parents and other people do not know what you are doing but God is always watching you.
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3 NASBR)
2. You are being very disobedient to God because He tells us to respect our parents and be obedient to them.
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1 NASBR)
"Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord" (Colossians 3:20 NASBR)
3. If you do not stop being bad right now, then you will get worse and worse and your only friends will be other people who are as bad as you and even worse. Have ever gone on a water slide? While you are sitting at the top of that slide, you can always change your mind and go back down the ladder, can’t you. Now it would be very silly to say to yourself, “Oh, I will start to slide down and if I don’t like it, then I’ll go back up,” wouldn’t it? If you have started going down a water slide, then you know how totally impossible it is to stop and you just have to slide all the way down into the pool. Well that is what it is like when you start doing bad things: You can choose right now not to be bad but once you start being bad, you start to slide into worse and worse things until you hit the bottom where you become totally bad.
"Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals" (1 Corinthians 15:33 NASBR)
4. When you do bad things that you know would upset your parents, it shows you cannot be trusted, that you have no respect for your parents, and that, really, you do not love your parents. It means you are a horrible person. Yes. Here is what God says about how you should treat your parents:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right" (Ephesians 6:1 NASBR)
"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you" (Exodus 20:12 NASBR)
"'Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 19:3 NASBR)
"Listen to your father who begot you, And do not despise your mother when she is old" (Proverbs 23:22 NASBR)
Summary
1. There are good things and bad things about the Internet:
a. It is good for doing your homework, keeping in touch with friends, and even playing games.
b. It is bad because there are bad web sites with bad language and pictures, and there are adults pretending to be your age who will try to persuade you to meet up with them and then… who knows what will happen?!
2. When you go online, you need to take precautions to make sure you are safe. So whatever precautions your parents take, then make sure you do what they say without being immature and weeping and wailing like a little baby.
3. There are some of you girls and boys who might be tempted to look at bad things or download music and movies (which is illegal) and it might seem like you are getting away with it, but God is watching you and it just shows that you cannot be trusted.
4. Finally, do not forget…
a. A lot of bad web sites that you visit can download computer viruses onto your computer without you knowing.
b. Your computer and ISP provider records all the web sites you visit and all the stuff you download and there is every chance that you will get caught, eventually. Worse, you can get into serious trouble with the police. Even worse, they might hold your parents responsible and they will get into serious trouble and even end up in prison. It happens!
c. Do not make friends with strangers because they may not be who they say they are. The only people they can trick are the people that think they cannot be tricked. Can you be tricked? If you say no, then it means you are at risk.
For parents: (1) make sure you understand all about all the dangers your children face on the Internet and install all the recommended security programs. (2) If your children are immature and they start accusing you of not trusting them and get all moody and stuff like that, then do not let them go on the Internet until they grow up. (3) Make sure you have daily family devotions.