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Article Series: Spyware
Gid Rid of Spyware on My System
Spyware:
Educate Your Children
If you start to get tons of pop-up windows
even when not connected to the net and your computer has slowed
to a crawl, you might have spyware. You know you haven’t downloaded
anything lately and you have a great anti-virus program. Well,
if the kids have been at the PC, there is a good
chance that is how you got it. Spyware is software that can get into your
machine while visiting not so safe web sites or through downloading
programs from an unknown source. Most of the time you won’t
even know that they are invading you or apart of a program
you are downloading. Kids are especially easy targets. The
good news is that most of the spyware children tend to download
is not malicious. Annoying yes, it will slow down your process
speed and cause a lot of pop-up windows. It might even change
your home page and redirect all your searches, but it won’t
crash you. If your kids frequent your machine often to play
online games or chat, they could be accidentally infecting
you.
Typical
children’s software downloads that can contain spyware
are very simple to figure out. Children love free games they
can download from the net. They assume that since they are
free, it should not be a problem with Mom or Dad. Kids also
love to get music, movies, and other software through file
sharing. These files can be corrupted with viruses and/or spyware.
A very good source of spyware is animated desktop characters.
These are very entertaining and appealing to children. Most
parents don’t mind them being on the computer until they find
out that they are not alone. Free screen savers are also popular
with kids. Parents or children will download them thinking
that SpongeBob will look great and now the computer has changed
your home page and it takes two hours to open Microsoft word.
Another popular download for kids is tool bars for the browser.
For some reason, they can never get enough and as they come
out with more buttons and gadgets, kids can’t help but add
them to the computer. Older kids are also known to download
pop-up blockers that appear on the computer. They assume since
they are advertising a feature that Mom and Dad like, it is
okay. These actual ads are pop-ups and infect the computer.
Not every tool bar, game, or screen saver will contain spyware. If
you teach children to only download from trusted sites
they can get the things they love without infecting your
computer. They need to ask prior to downloading a program if it looks
okay or be capable of reading the license agreement, warning
statements, and privacy statements provided. Many of the agreements
are not easy to read and it is best to instruct children to
ask before installing programs on their own. If your child
is asking for a program that you are not sure about, type it
into your browser and see what comes up. You could be directed
to a trusted site for its download or learn that it is a hoax
and is spyware. For those of you out there who hear “I didn’t
download anything, I swear”, sometimes the kids have no clue
they even did it. There are many popular kid sites out there
that will just try to download software with out your children
knowing.
The kids may see the warning that something wants do download
and just click at random to make it go away. What usually happens
is they click the wrong box and the software downloads. It
is very easy to accidentally hit agree or the wrong X. If your
children cannot be trusted to know the difference in what is
a good site or what is not then you can install some parental
controls that will keep them from being able to download things
from the net. Talk with your kids about the net and what is
there. Depending on the age of you children you will have to
have a talk with them. You might have older children that you
can teach where they are allowed to download from and where
they can’t or have to ask first. Add sites that your children
are aloud to download from on your favorites. This way they
know where is good. Establish rules for online usage from the
moment they first start to use the Internet. This will not
only keep your computer safe but your kids as well.
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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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