Stacie Rumenap is president of Stop Child Predators, an organization that combats the sexual exploitation of children by helping parents of child victims tell their stories, law enforcement and advocates develop solutions, and decision makers find stronger and more effective policies.

The growth of the internet—including broadband and wireless access—has the unfortunate side effect of putting children at potential risk.  For the most part, the connections our kids make on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allow teens the opportunity to connect to other teens from around the world—something that would not have been possible just a few years ago.

But along with this new ability to “hang out online” has also come the danger of predators looking for ways to lure children into dangerous or even fatal situations.

So mom and dad, it is your job to understand who your child is talking to online and what your child is accessing.  If your household is like so many others around the country, the interest among parents to better understand what their kids are doing online will probably lead to eye-rolling, heaving sighing, and even slamming bedroom doors.  But hold your own, mom and dad—safety is not a matter of not trusting your kids, it is a matter of not trusting the person lurking on the web who may want to contact them.

Make sure your children know the dangers of talking to someone they have only met online, and remind them never to physically meet with anyone they have only become “friends” with online.  Predators share information about how best to lure children into situations that the child may believe are safe and friendly. Read more

Jay Opperman, Senior Director of Security and Privacy, Comcast Corporation

As October is National Cyber Security Awareness month, we were pleased to be able to make an announcement about a program we have undertaken to help protect our customers from online security threats.  As the largest residential Internet service provider in the U.S., we also want to continue to help raise awareness about online safety issues.

Last week, we unveiled our “Constant Guard” program, which is the name of our comprehensive approach to help protect our high-speed Internet customers from bots, viruses and other online threats.  The program is the culmination of a multi-year effort to assemble a dedicated team of security professionals, implement best-in-class security software and create a Security Web portal (www.comcast.net/security) chock full of consumer resources to protect customers from increasingly sophisticated online threats.  (The site also contains links to organizations like NCSA that are dedicated to online safety.)

Bots and malicious software from hackers are getting more and more sophisticated.  In fact, according to the NCSA, bots are the Internet’s fastest-growing cyber crime.  A bot, also known as a Web robot, is a form of malicious software that is used to gain control over a computer, typically without the owner of the computer even knowing it.  Bots are the leading cause of spam and are also responsible for identity theft, information theft and denial of service attacks.Read more

The below links are useful sources of information related to cyber security and safety on the internet.  We hope they can be useful to those interested in the subject matter.

http://wiredmoms.com/

http://www.larrysworld.com/about/

http://www.voicesofbroadband.com/

http://billmullins.wordpress.com/

http://www.staysafeonline.info/content/events

http://blogs.technet.com/staysafe/

http://cyberbullying.us/blog/

http://threatchaos.com/

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/

http://www.otalliance.org