One lay that parents and issue forget when on the Internet is the holiday that nothing put on the Internet ever leaves. That means that anything incriminating posted online can be later dug up and used against your child at work, in a divorce or by the government. In this article I will look at three fallacies that impact your child's safety and future.

Fallacy 1

If I delete something, it is gone.

• The delete key removes it from your eyes, however, it still resides on your computers hard drive.
• The only way to remove it forever is to reformat the drive or wait until some other program writes over it on the hard drive.

This is true for everyone's computer, including the MySpace hard drives and backup tapes.

Fallacy 2

If I remove my content from the web, no one can access it anymore.

• Once information is placed on the Internet, anyone can copy it to their computer.
• In addition, the place that stored the information still retains copies on their hard drive.

MySpace says they delete it off the hard drive when requested. My question: do they delete it off their backup copies and everyone's hard drive that copied or downloaded something? I didn't think so...

Fallacy 3

Nobody will want the stuff I put online.

• Pedophiles/sex offenders collect images and stories.
• Pornography sites seek out images and stories to put on their sites.
• Attorneys use this information for litigation
• Employers seeking to fire an employee will search the net and the employee computer for incriminating evidence.
• Disgruntled employees will use past Internet use to incriminate other employees or employers.
• Electronic conversations are used in court cases and government investigations.
• Spouses use this information in divorce cases

Think about this: remembering your high school years, how would you feel if the things you did then were on the Internet in living color for anyone to find? Today, MySpace users post their real and fantasy lives online! Scary, very scary...

As you can see, the "here and now" is not the only issue parents need to worry about. It is the tomorrows we need to protect as well. Protect your children by becoming computer literate and getting educated about online dangers.

Rhonda Goetz
Parent Smartz
Empowering Parents...
866.241.9927

Rhonda Goetz is a wild cram technology chaperon and instructional designer. She deals passable with the Internet and student's Internet use. She designed an easy-to-use online course to help parents understand Internet perils and how to monitor their child's activity.

Get Empowered! Sign up for the Parent Series:Protecting Your Child Online online class today!