Do you think it's safe?

Nowadays, people do everything on the internet. Most of them expose themselves to kinds of things that are not nice. Internet may solve a lot of problems we have with time, and transport, for example, but it can cause you some troubles, too.
At first, blogs didn't seem to be dangerous. People used to tell about their lives, share things and give information about anything. But, after some time, as the searching tools were improved, things got complicated. Now, if you want to see if someone has ever written about you in their blog, you just have to type your name and some information you think might be there. It's not hard. There is a discussion going on about what people can say on the internet: if you say bad things about someone, or even something, on a web page, you may be accused of personal injury.
On the one hand, it is really useful. Nobody can get pictures of you and do whatever they want. This does a lot of harm, and that will make people laugh at the poor one. It is fair if the person takes the blogger to court.
On the other hand, it takes away the freedom from people who are just saying their opinions about some products or other people. The companies are way more powerful (and usually rich) than the accused blogger. It's something that only exists in dictatorship.
Another problem with the internet is that paedophiles use it to get what they want. And if you can't see who you are talking to, how can you protect yourself from them? They create ways so that they can get to children easily, and make friends with them. Our country, Brazil, is one of the worst countries in that way. The number of pornographic images of children is one of the highest in the world. Ten years ago, paedophiles didn't have such an easy way to get to children. Now, on the internet they can be anyone they want, and lie.
Well, as you can see, we need to be careful with the internet. Here's some advice for you:

• don't use rude words in your blog, or comment;
• don't say anything you cannot prove;
• in case some one wants to take you to court, try to make a deal;
• be aware of the law;
• don't give personal information, when it's not necessary;
• don't talk to people who have weird nicknames;
• download a good anti-virus in your computer, so that you can avoid hackers;
• be careful with the images you put on your personal page.

Do you think the way you surf the internet is safe?


You can check out more about this at ISTOÉ - "A Liberdade de Expressão na Era do Blog" and ISTOÉ - "O Perigo Digital".