safe surfing

Internet users seem to forget how vulnerable they are. When the net first became popular, the numerous horror stories about the creeps and criminals online were sufficient to ensure people were wary about the information they posted. However, today, when you use the computer for almost everything, whether it's booking buttered popcorn at the theatre or asking for advice on how to clip your Labrador's nails, it's only natural you get lulled into feeling secure. Getting information on others has never been so easy. There are about 200 popular social networking sites such as Orkut, Friendster, Hi5 and Facebook .sites like Orkut have their good points, which is why they have so many members. You can use them to find old college buddies and classmates and make new friends. Unfortunately, you're also likely to stumble across very strange people: If you're a woman, you'll constantly get friend requests from men, sometimes accompanied by obscene pictures or emails. It can be annoying, and occasionally frightening.Site moderators have little control since any user can start a community, and users multiply faster than gremlins at a swimming meet. Orkut, which began in 2004 had 30,089,043 members by October 18, 2006, according to Wikipedia. And about 20,000 people add themselves to Facebook everydaWith dozens of new groups springing up everyday — ranging from `I love potato chips' to `Hack the Universe' — moderators find it difficult to weed out the bad guys. So anytime you log on, it's possible to get anything from a `credit card hacking tutorial' to tips on how to hack into someone's e-mail account.