Security guide for teens from Microsoft

[Anupam]

Microsoft have released a digital book for free, aimed at teens, to make them aware of online security issues. It is named "Own Your Space". The book, or its individual chapters can be downloaded from here :

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/e...displayLang=en

I think this is a good step, and initiative taken by Microsoft... because nowadays many young people get online, and surf the internet, and almost all have accounts on some social sites or the other, like Facebook etc. Security, and safety for them is really important.

I hope this book brings some awareness. Although, this is directed at teens mainly, but people who are not aware about computers, or other security issues, can also benefit from this book.

[1002richards]

Very optimistic of Microsoft to hope the target audience will stop surfing, tweeting and facebooking long enough to read it ....

[miskairal]

Totally agree - not too many teens would take the time to read it. However, perhaps it could/should be used in schools?

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by miskairal

Totally agree - not too many teens would take the time to read it. However, perhaps it could/should be used in schools?

I agree. Less than 5% will ever read anything like this for reasons we can all remember from when we were teenagers ourselves

I think parents too should take more responsibility in this direction considering the potential personal and financial implications of their little darlings falling victim to one online scam or another. Presumably (for those old enough at any rate) they wouldn't let them drive a car with bald tyres or no insurance so the same considerations should be also applied to their kids computers.

I also agree that more emphasis about "staying safe" should be included in the school curriculum. Social sciences always taught how to use a cooker safely and if anything the potential danger from a PC is greater. Having said that, the university where my wife works has the most badly managed and most highly infected network I've ever seen so I guess this type of education needs to start higher up the scale

[deya]

Thanks for the book link, Anupam. I've not seen this before, and while I agree that to get most teenagers to read the whole thing would asking too much these days it wouldn't be too difficult to have them read certain chapters. So chapters 1, 3 and 11 have been dispatched via email to a couple of people I know who should benefit from reading them.

I'm thinking of printing chapter 3 for one particular person and would be more than happy to nail it to his laptop screen.

[Anupam]

deya, am glad that you made some use of this e-book . Sending individual chapters was a good thing to do.

I agree that it might be difficult to get people to read this book. Don't know if it will reach many people or not, or how many people would get aware of it first, before they read it. Its from Microsoft, so maybe there is a chance, that a larger number of people come to know about this. Awareness is the first step, and then reading. Getting teens to read too is also difficult, I agree with that too.

As MC said, this awareness should start at home itself, from parents. But, another thing is that parents might not themselves be aware of the security problems on the net, or even familiar with computer for that matter.

Still, it is an initiative that should be appreciated. Might not help a lot of people, but some might be helped, and its better than nothing at all.