Sobana Rachael 4T1

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying occurs when one or more people deliberately and repeatedly intend to hurt another person through communication technologies such as emails, chatrooms, websites, message boards, instant messaging, cell phones or pagers.


Schools take bullying seriously. The first place you should go in search of justice is your school as cyber bullying is often an extension or escalation of bullying that is already happening at school. The police are unlikely to become involved if the bullying is limited to a few isolated incidents or a couple of mean emails or text messages. However, if you get even one communication that includes a threat of bodily harm or a death threat the police should be alerted. Be aware that urging suicide is considered a death threat and the police will treat it accordingly. Obviously, repeated or excessive harassment via email, forums or chat is harassment and should involve the police.

A person i know was being cyberbullied an still in trouble.

An adult woman, who made the silly mistake of making friends on myspace.she was always careful not to give too much personal details. One of the friends was always threatening to commit suicide & she tried to talk him through it. They became friends, and from the outset she had always told him, she was only interested in him as a friend & that she was unavailable. He formed an unhealthy attachment to her. and each day would complain if she hadn't emailed him. So she stopped, with a brief explanation telling him she was busy & would prefer no further contact. This was around 6 months ago. He has continued to harrass daily with multiple emails, mimics me on social network sites and he even said that he wished he would die and that he was coming to my country. she have lost all enjoyment of the internet, and she is preparing for a house move as she suspect he may know where she live as perhaps he has somehow hacked my computer.And she don't know what to do.

Both children and adults are targets of cyberbullying. In fact, teachers have been cyberbullied. We probably hear more about cyberbullying in relation to children because they have more free time than adults and fill their empty hours on the Internet and cell phones.

What can people do to prevent cyberbullying?

Email safety. Never give out your primary email address. Set up a free email account (i.e. Yahoo, Gmail) because they are harder to trace. When opening an account, don't include identifying information. Don't open any email from an unknown sender. If you're being cyberbullied, change your email address. When you finish using the computer, log off.

Chatroom Safety. Only go to moderated chatrooms. Observe chatroom conversation before chiming in. Select a screen name that won't reveal your name, age, sex, location, or any other personal information. Don't select a screen name that can attract the wrong crowd or bring you negative attention. Don't agree to have a private chat with anyone. If someone asks A/S/L (age/sex/location) as soon as you start talking, say you are not comfortable revealing that information. Observe netiquette. Be polite and respectful, just as if you were talking in person.

Do not give out any personal or identifying information (i.e. your name, names of family/friends, home address, phone number, school, malls, parks or other locations near your home, your favorite teams, email addresses or screen names, passwords, photos of yourself). Be cautious. Most people are good, but there are bad people out there. You have no way of knowing if the person you're talking with is honest, no matter how nice he/she seems. When you fill out online profiles, don't give identifying information. You don't know who will see the information. Think before you type. Words are powerful. They can hurt people. Treat others as you want to be treated. Being unable to see a person is no excuse for rude behavior.

How can a parent recognize if their child is being cyberbullied?

There are several warning signs of victimization: changes in the child's mood or behavior - such as crying, depression, fearfulness or changes in eating and sleep habits; uncharacteristic reactions while on the computer or cell phone (quickly clears screen or stops talking on phone when anyone walks by); refusal to talk about his/her internet use; withdrawal from friends and family; not wanting to go to school or participate in school activities; and a decline in school grades.

So let's prevent cyberbullying and whenever using internet have this points in mind.

Violet Phua 3E2

INTERNET-

ADDICTION!

Honestly speaking, I was once an internet addict who spent hours and hours sitting in front of my personal computer. My highest record was 10 continuous hours of non-stop gaming but of course, it’s during one of the December Holidays. I think that it is sort like an irresistible temptation that’s stopping me from getting myself off the seats. Surely, I had gotten scolding after scolding by my parents but their scolding only make me feel guilty for a moment. The next day, I continued with my gaming and once again I got scolding by my parents. That did not stop me from gaming.

What exactly stopped me from gaming?

It was when the date to school reopen is only one week and I am still having tons of incomplete homework! Then, I realized that gaming won’t benefits but instead harming me. Not only I got to rush with my homework but also, I lost my perfect eye sight which I have regretted greatly. But the best thing for now is , I had fulfilled the promissory I made to my mum to only use the computer during weekends provided that I completed all my homework not to neglect my studies. Overall, I really hope that there will be lesser internet addicts or in fact no internet addicts where people will not forget the existence of our real life.  

Video on internet addiction.

Violet Phua 3E2

Scams, Spams

With rising net users, Internet scams and spams have been on the rise!

Scams

                     

However, I rarely receive scam emails and whenever I received an email from an unknown email address; I will not open the mail but instead delete it from my mail box to prevent myself to be another victim of those scams and spams online.

Internet makes it easier for legitimate pursuits; it also makes it easier for scammers, con artists, and other online miscreants to carry out their virtual crimes - impacting our real life finances, security, and peace of mind. These Internet scams are constantly evolving - here are the most common today.

1. Phishing scams

2. Nigerian 419 Scams3. Greeting Card Scams

4. Shopper Needed Check Fraud Scam

5. Reshipping and Payment Processing Fraud

6. Lottery Winning Scams

7. Pump and Dump Stock Scams

8. Fraudulent Link Scams

9. Killer Spam: Hitman Email Threatens Recipients

10. Scareware Scams                                          

Spams

I have received quite a number of spams emails before and they are usually from an unknown email address claiming that they are from a particular company or organization. However, their main purpose is to sell deals or getting us to sign up which I find those mails plain annoying.

We must remember that when we received spam mails they should be ignored and we can simply delete the e-mails or click "junk e-mail" in our e-mail client so the server knows these are coming from a spammer.

Another thing to note is that we should never reply to a spammer. Even if we reply with something like "stop e-mailing me", that e-mail won't be read and instead we will simply get more e-mail and don't even click on the link that says "click here to remove your e-mail from our e-mail list" as email address won't be removed from the e-mail list but instead will be added back into their database.

Overall, we should beware of online scammers and spammers and think twice before we give out any of our personal particulars. We should be alert at all times to prevent ourselves from being the next “target” or “victim” of the scams or spams. Readers please bear in mind that prevention is the best precaution. Video on facebook scams.

Koh Jun Sheng, 4A3

Personally I feel that Cyber bullying is the use of e-mail, instant messaging (E.g. Msn/Skype/Yahoo Messenger & other messengers), chat rooms, handphones, or other forms of information technology to deliberately harass, threaten, or intimidate us. Cyber bullying is often done by teenagers, who have increasing access to these technologies. It could also be sending of malicious codes, having text wars, impersonation, flaming & bad online polls.

I have encountered a lot of cyber bullies and usually they are called Keyboard Warriors. Keyboard warriors would only talk big in front of their computer screen which is the virtual world & they are usually timid in the actual world. I was once a cyber bully, I used to scold people online, make them scared of me & I even escorted money from them but I have changed for the better and now I would always help people as much as I could when they are bullied online.


I have always take cyber-bullies as cowards & they are egoistic. I would not comment on them but I personally advice them to change for the better. It is not worth your time being a cyber bully as you can get nothing at the end of the day. The most you can get is being proud in front of your online friends.


Thanks for reading. :)

Alex Tan 2E1

Privacy is a huge concern to many citizens, customers, patients, internet users and telephone subscribers especially as the lines are being blurred between professional and private lives. My online privacy had never been compromised before. If I am not wrong, most of the people in the world had their privacy compromised before. I will explain to you about how Information Privacy is compromised.

It is the right of individuals, groups and institutions to determine for themselves, when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others. Many people are unaware that when we go online, we leave an electronic record of our movements—and we can unwittingly provide personal information to people and organizations that track such data. To avoid the invasion of privacy, we should always clear up Internet cookies & we should not give information to websites that is not safe especially our credit card number. Many people are simply unaware of just how much of their personal data is being stored and processed, whether that is in the form of cookie trails that track their internet usage, video from surveillance systems, such as Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), or the purchases they make using credit cards and company loyalty cards.

Hence, Individuals must take control of their own online identities if they are to avoid becoming victims of online crime.

Lawrence 2E1

Everyone knows what bullying means. It can be being called horrible names or picked on because of things like how you look or act, your family or your race and religion. It can be people telling lies about you or being left out and ignored. It can be people threatening you to make you feel scared and they might make you give them things or make you do things you do not want to.



I had a friend who had encountered cyber bullies before, I advised him to talk to someone instead of letting it upset him. It is important to talk to parents, teachers, friends and other people around you. I always remember that it is not our fault if we are being bullied and cyber bullying is not allowed, and that there is always something we can do about it. If we are being bullied, we should always start by telling someone about it.


Cyber bullying can happen through email, chat rooms, instant messenger or websites and blog-spaces, as well as by text messages. Cyber bullying can happen even when you are at home or on your own when you use the internet or have you Mobile phone switched on. Sometimes, with cyber bullying you might not even know who is doing it because they can pretend to be someone else!


Cyber bullying can make us feel very bad. Being bullied can make us feel upset, embarrassed, sad or scared. It can even make us feel ill! And I personally feel that those who encountered cyber bullies might start avoiding classes or skipping school to avoid the bullies if they are people you already know. This can make it difficult to concentrate on our school work.

About Online Privacy, my online privacy had never been compromised because I seldom give out my private information freely online as I feel that it is not an ideal choice. It is very important to keep our passwords private as if we spread our passwords around, people might be able to hack into our accounts and they might be able to use our privacy to threaten us!

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Alex Tan 2E1

 Online Scams &Internet Addiction

Online scamming is very common nowadays & being one of their victims is easy. Scammers send you an e-mail that tries to lure you to a legitimate-looking Web site where you'll be asked to enter personal information. The thing is, 99% of them are fake. If you fall for it, someone is ready to take your Social Security Number and start opening credit card accounts.

Internet addiction is another problem of the youngster nowadays Internet addiction, or, more broadly, overusing of the internet, problematic computer use is excessive computer use that interferes with daily life. Online activities which are done in person would be considered troublesome. Examples are gambling and shopping online. Other such as reading or playing computer games, are troubling only to the extent that these activities interfere with normal life. Addiction of pornography, gaming, blogging and online shopping might be harmful and unsafe to student like us.
Cyber wellness education is very important for us as the internet is a totally full of danger and predator. And I totally agree to the poster of the werewolf that says “beware of the internet”.

Lawrence 2E1

Spams.

Yes I had always received scam and spam emails from unknown senders and it is still going on now. What I did was that I filtered the spam emails and I would report them. I have some ways to share with you guys on how to prevent spam and scam emails based on what I have learned previously when I attended a computer course. We should avoid posting or showing our emails online on public websites. We should always disguise our email address on our webpage, and we could also create a dummy email account for public posting. We should avoid using Hotmail/MSN/AOL as our primary mail provider as spammers just flood all common usernames on widely-used mail systems.

I’ll also share some tips with you on how I filter the spam and scam emails. If you are getting a few spam messages per day, we should just delete them as it isn’t worth our time fixing them up. I would also use built-in spam filters for Web-based email accounts. Many e-mail programs have built-in routines for identifying suspected spam. Hotmail's is particularly useful, probably because Hotmail is such a breeding ground for spam. You'll find Hotmail's Inbox Protector under the Options tab and Yahoo Mail has strong built-in, automatic spam protection.

I have never heard any of my friends telling me about people getting scammed due to the scam emails. I have only heard them talking about being scammed in games. I would advise you to delete an email without opening it when you receive an email from a person that you don’t know and especially when the title looks weird. For this case, an Internet Security virus scanner might be useful.

Koh Jun Sheng 4A3

Internet Addiction

Internet addiction is common around the world. Things might turn out serious. I have a lot of friends who are Internet addicts. They would cancel all their upcoming events and just go home after school just to play online games. I was an internet addict before but I managed to conquer it. Excessive online gaming really caused me trouble. I would scold my parents when they ask me to stop playing, I will try to drag as long as possible so that I could play longer, I always play secretly at home when nobody was around, I went to look for a person in reality when I was unhappy with him/her in a game & I even went bought prepaid cards which costed me about a total of $800 for the game which will enhance the excitement of the game. I really regretted it but if you are an Internet or Gaming addict, don’t worry. I will tell you ways to stop being an addict. It was hard but it is worth it.

Here are some symptoms that I personally feel if you are an internet addict.

1)      You would lose track of time (Amount of time that you were online for)

2)      You would have trouble completing tasks in school or at home. (Always talking about games in school during lessons)

3)      You would neglect your family members and friends.

4)      You would feel guilty and defensive about your internet use.

5)      First thing you do in the morning everyday would be turning on your computer and play games.

If you are an internet addict, these are some ways from me so that you can stop internet addiction. Parents can use these ways too. My parents used some of the ways to stop me from playing.

1)      Set goals and trim down the hours of play time slowly.

2)      Practice the opposite. Change the timelines and try to ask him/her to study before he starts playing.

3)      External stoppers. It would cause the computer to shut down immediately after a few hours of play time & you can set the hours.

4)      Use reminder cards to remind them to stop playing and what would internet addiction lead to.

5)      Ask him/her to go out as a friend. Encourage him to go out with you guys.

6)      Do not talk to him about games and online activities commonly.

7)      If he or she is really uncontrollable. Bring him/her to attend counselling from our school’s counsellor which is Mdm Persis Tan. Uncontrollable would be like attacking & locking up. 

8)      Control yourself. It is worth it… 

Thank you for reading. 

Violet Phua 3E2

Internet Security

Online Purchases

For me, for my whole life I have never made online purchases using a credit card as I knew about the danger of purchasing online. Though, making online purchases is easy and convenient where there is an increase in the number of online shoppers. However, even if we really need to purchase something online we really must be careful and check if there is a security lock on the page before us typing in our credit card’s codes on web. It is because we never know if there are hackers hiding behind the screen waiting for us to type in our credit card’s codes so if we typed in our codes “BINGO” those hackers are able to hack into our account now. Hence, I personally object the idea of making online purchases. It might be an ideal shopping net to hunt for things but the net definitely won’t be an ideal place for paying. Even if there are things for us to purchase online using credit card, we should seek permission from our parents to ensure double safeness from becoming another “victim”.

Violet Phua 3E2

 Internet Security

Click-jacking is a malicious technique of tricking web users into revealing confidential information or taking control of their computer while clicking on seemingly innocuous web pages. Vulnerability across a variety of browsers and platforms, a click-jacking takes the form of embedded code or script that can execute without the user's knowledge, such as clicking on a button that appears to perform another function.

There are more and more web users who got “cheated” by click-jacking each year but definitely, I’m not one of the “victims”. However, when surfing on the net often, there will be some advertisements asking net-surfers to click on it where the advertisement seems no harm. The advertisements that I often saw on web are something like “There’s a VAIO LAPTOP waiting for you!” some users might think that it’s a great opportunities for them to try their luck and see they really can get the laptop as they see no harms to it. There was once, one of my friends who was unsure if she really became a “victim” of click-jacking as she clicked on an unknown website and she even posted all her particulars as required by the site safely, nothing happened to her. She learnt her lesson and became more careful when she need to click on any unknown web.

Koh jun sheng 4A3

have never made any online purchases using a credit card before because it isn’t an ideal way for me to deal things & I don’t have friends that purchase items on the Internet using a credit card too. I feel that it isn’t ideal based on the some of the points that I’ll state but there are other negative points.

1. A big disadvantage of online shopping is that we do not see the item physically till it arrives and it might have a defect on it.
2. We all know that it takes a few days for our items to arrive after our payment. Hence, we might be excited about the item that we bought for the first few days before it arrives. But we might be less excited then compared to the day when we bought on that day we made the payment.
3. There would also be shipping charges applied but there are also some websites that offers free shipping. This is considered a bad point if we want to save money buy purchasing items online.
4. If you computer is infected with a spy ware. People might get to know your particulars and your personal data like example your credit card information but we cannot put the blame on the sellers.
5. There are risks of online fraud too.

Koh Jun Sheng 4A3

One of my friends had encountered a click-jacking virus before & I managed to help my friend fix it by following the steps in the following website http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/firefox-stop-clickjacking-attack.html . I’ll explain what I understand about it. A Click jacking virus, or click jack attack, is an attacker to collect an infected user’s clicks use vulnerability. The attacker can force the user to do all sort of things from adjusting the user's computer settings to unwittingly sending the user to websites that might have malicious code. Also, by taking advantage of Adobe Flash or JavaScript, an attacker could even place a button under or over a legitimate button, making it difficult for users to detect. A virus scanner might be useful. I personally advice you guys to get the best virus protector which is Bitdefender and I am using it myself too. It is rated as one of the top virus scanner. It slows down your computer at times as it is updating and occurs especially during start up. Just have a scan once a month and it will help a little.

ALex Tan 2E1

                                        internet sercurity
Click jacking is essentially hijacking a click. This means that you will think that you are clicking on one thing, when in reality you're clicking on another. This probably doesn’t sound like much of a big deal on the surface, until you consider that you might think you’re clicking “submit” on your bank’s website, and really you have just given your username and password to somebody who plans to drain your account in the next five minutes.


The real sticky widget in this situation is that you could be clicking a button that looks completely normal and is even on a completely legitimate site. You can actually be on your bank’s website and still get click jacked.

But luckily I had never encountered click-jacking viruses neither my friends.

One of my friends had made an online purchase with his father’s credit card before as he had not enough cash to pay for the goods that he wanted to buy. He got scolded when his father realized that.


I personally feel that online purchases are not very secured as Internet scammers have been working very diligently on new and more interesting ways to separate you from your money or information. So, I would rather purchase goods from shops than purchase them from online.

lawrence 2E1

                                                 Internet sercurity
No, I have not encountered a click-jacking virus before but I know a friend that had encountered it before. He clicked it as he thought it was a link that was sent by his friend.


Click-jacking is able as it seems harmless features of pages can be used to perform unexpected actions.

A click-jacked page bluffs a user into doing undesired actions by clicking on a concealed link. On a click-jacked page, the attackers show a set of dummy buttons, and then load another page over it in a transparent layer. The users think that they are clicking the visible buttons, while they are actually performing actions on the hidden page. The hidden page may be an authentic page, and therefore the attackers can trick users into performing actions which the users never intended to do and there is no way of tracing such actions.

These are the things that I know about a click-jacking virus.

Brandon Yue 2E1

                                              Scams,spams and internet addiction


Yes, I have received spam emails very often. But usually I ignored them as they might have contained of such dirty stuff or viruses. I do not bother about spam emails because I am afraid that my computer would have some technical problems. It is sad to say that I have a friend who clicks on this “email” and unfortunately for him, his computer has virus. I felt sad for him and I felt so useless because I could not be of any help to him. Fortunately for me, I am not an internet addict. I do not even want to be an internet addict as I am afraid that it would affect my grades. I think that those who spam the emails should stop because they are only harming the other people. They should think twice before spamming the emails like me.

Luckily for me I had studied the benefits of cyber wellness.

Thanks

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More entries coming up..

Durga 4E3

Yes! I do agree that like any other ordinary person, i am inevitably addicted to the internet. but, not exactly for gaming but rather for simply surfing the net. it is one of hobbies to allow myself to get transferred from one website to another in the name of links. it is quite fascinating to me that by just one click, one can actually get to know so much more about other people out there in the world. i was and still am addicted to Youtube where you can access so many videos from all over the world. all i have to do is click a certain keyword and there i have with me hundreds of videos suiting my taste.."simply great! wow!"would be my thought every time i view such videos. however, i was spending too much of time on surfing the net. my parents did get me a laptop with the promise that i wouldn't abuse my privilege. i did remember the ultimatum set on me and i tried my best to limit my internet usage and also keep that usage specifically for my studies. it was quite a struggle when i found myself being unable to avoid sufring the net.. somehow, with the help and distractions of my family, i managed to balance my time between necessary web surfing and leisure surfing! now i am perfectly capable of managing my time on the net and using it for the right reasons!

Durga 4E3

I do receive spam emails often but thankfully they are always properly done away with by my email service provider. So, the only way I see them is by going into my spam emails account. Otherwise, there is never any contact with spam emails in my case. However, spams are always a regular sight in most websites where they do not support proper security formats while creating their web page. spam emails are really unavoidable. But they are not too strong to fight off as well. Whenever there is a spam email in my account, i simply shift it to my junk mails account where all emails are deleted after a time limit of three days. Many of my friends are smart enough to respond appropriately to spam emails.. However, there are some who fall prey to such scams. Recently, many people have been victims of such spamming activities. It is quite sad that even though we use the internet almost every day to cater to our various educational needs, we still have to encounter such irresponsible behaviour online. Well, it is an undeniable truth that not everything in life can be perfect.

Evan Koh 2E1

Cyber-bullying is well-known around the world. Some of my friends were victims of cyber-bullying. I've never been cyber-bullied before and I'm not a cyer-bully either. My friends were cyber-bullied mostly because of them accidentally insulting the bully, accidentally did something wrong to the bully, and sometimes the bully does it just for "fun".

Anyone can be cyber-bullied, even friends, relatives and teachers maybe. Cyber-bullying can come in forms of threats, insults and more. So just be more careful of offending another person. You might just get cyber-bullied. But if you are being cyber-bullied, consult a counsellor like Mdm Persis, a teacher like your form teacher, close friends or your parents.

I feel that cyber-bullies are cowards. Cowards I say. If you want to bully, why not bully in reality? Why bully using the internet? Cyber-bullies are cowards, usually timid and bullies to get back at the person they hate or just want somethings valuable that they can use like informations. Cyber-bullying is known worldwide and is known to be one of the most cowardly acts. Cyber-bullies usually insult their victims or threaten their victims. Such childish acts can cause victims to go under depression from non-stop insults which may cause them to do foolish things like cutting, starving, and more horrible outcomes. That's why I know that cyber-bullies are cowards and if you know any of your friends are being cyber-bullied or you are cyber-bullied, don't be afraid of telling someone that can help. Don't worry, cyber-bullies are cowards..

Evan Koh 2E1

Have I ever had my online privacy compromised? Not really, my online privacy's quite safe. I make sure that my online privacy is kept safe as it's a very valuable thing, once exposed, you can never ever get it back. It's like scamming, once you're foolish enough to fall for email scams and give up your back account details, the scammer will have those details forever. Online privacy's like your personal details like where you live, where is your school located, what's your age, and more. Such details can be very valuable to scammers or evil internet users so be sure to keep them safe, never tell anyone, maybe one or two of your family members like your siblings or parents but never ever tell others, not even friends. You won't know what might happen in the end...

Lim Yang Teng. 2E1

  Singaporean teen spend an average of 17.2 hours on the internet each week, but most of them don`t know much about cyber wellness, being an easy prey to cyber-scammer and cyberbully. Cyberwellness is a term which encompasses not only concerns around safety and security online, but also considers people's psychological and emotional.
  Nowdays children and young people are becoming active producers and consumers of online content, services, communications, And with these freedom to express themselves to others, that some of them say they have lost control over the amount of time they spending on internet and think life without internet is terrible.
  Cyber wellness is also being respectful, rational and understanding of harmful online behaviour, awareness of how to protect your-self against it. Many do not know what is legal and what is not, hence most do not report any illegal activity they may come across online, like downloading software from internet,  many show ignorance about copyright laws.
  Young people are not using internet optimally, using it as a tool and publish wrong information online to harm others. Or using it for scamming,bullying or hacking into others computer to steal valuable and confidential information,like credit card number and password.
  Best way of protecting children from possible risks is to teach children and young people knowledge, skills and understanding of cyberwellness and the ability to make correct decisions about the appropriate way and safe use of internet.

Some updates.

Hey there!
Thanks for supporting and sending your entries to gsscyberwellness@gmail.com
Hope to see more entries soon :)
Anyway, just to let you guys know that the following below:
Cyber-clips *updated*
Poll *New* ( Please vote for the prize that you hope to win the most.)
Cyberwellness Quiz. *New* ( A quiz to let students more understand about cyberwellness, do try!)

Thank you very much.
Have a nice day
(:

Evan Koh 2E1

 I met many internet addicts in my life, I mean, they're all around. Even I'm one. Addiction is very bad, even the word itself spells trouble. One of the worst is internet addiction. Addiction on the internet can consist of many things like gaming addiction, blogging addiction, youtube addiction and more. Such addictions can cause the addict to sleep late, unable to concentrate during lessons, lose friends from the reality as they stop talking to one another, decrease in grades due to lack of concentration and more. So being too addicted can be very serious.
So try to minimize internet time, plan your day or just restrict yourself from using. It's hard but as long as the determination is there, nothing is impossible.

  I did get into trouble once which was during primary six. I was addicted to blogging, facebooking, youtubing and especially, gaming. I couldn't stop myself from getting my face in front of the computer screen. It was hard. Everyday when I return home, I'll switch the computer on and use till 6 in the evening. It was 5 hours everyday.
I was so addicted that my result fell tremendously, it was so bad that my parents stepped in and restricted me to 1/2 hour a day, I even had to study for 1 more hour at night, with my mother watching me. Her stare creeps me out. Even television time was cut, I was so frustrated but I knew it was for my own good. Slowly and thankfully, my academic results improved and I got awesome grades for PSLE which I thought I could not accomplish.
I want to thank my parents, teachers and tuition teachers for helping me out, especially my mother.
So I resumed gaming during the holidays after the PSLE results was released but I restricted myself not to play too much.

Evan Koh 2E1

I only heard of scams and spams from my friend in primary. That's when blogging first came into my world. I've never heard of blogging till primary six either. So scams were known as "confidence trick" in the past. 

Scams are usually show some signs of greed and dishonesty. Scams can be dangerous as scamming nowadays can hurt people. There's a case where a company in Japan got an order from a new costumer and when the order was about to ship, a person saved the shipping as the credit card used wasn't his. So thanks to the person, the order was saved and the credit card holder hasn't found any money gone.
I've encoutered emails scams countless times myself so the best is to not fall for their trick as they'll tell you that you've won money and want your back account details and after recieving your bank details, they can access your back account and withdraw all your money and even put a virus into your computer as a "thank-you gift".
So scams can put someone in danger if the scammer, the person scamming, doesn't know about the consequences.

Spams can come in emails, especially in the junk folder. Spams from emails can be known as "email spams". Email spams usually sent viruses too, which is very dangerous and can cause many troubles such as work unsaved when done, advertisements popping up out of nowhere, computer malfunctions, these things that usually don't happen. Spams can also be found on blogs in the chat boxes, spamming on blogs can be done by typing mean things about someone or just for "fun" and type vulgar language, disencouraging others from going to his or her blog.
I've never encountered spams yet but I know that spams are dangerous so the best is to get an anti-virus and scam your computer daily, weekly, or monthly.
 

Durga 4E3

My first encounter with click-jacking was perfectly normal. Just like any other usual shout-out message. It was from one of my friends, Anisha who was in a different school. I thought it was perfectly normal until the click-jacks became suspiciously monotonous and dull. It was very unlike to be my Anisha, who was extremely out-spoken and jovial. It was then that i called her enquiring about her online status. To my shock, she said that it had been a few days since she last logged on to her account! I was scared stiff as i told her everything that had just happened. She was just as surprised as me when she listened to what i had to say. I advised her to change her password and if possible, to make it a strong one. She took my advice and changed her password straight away. We both sighed in relief when she told me she was successful in changing her password. That was one online experience that we would both keep in mind every single time we logged in into our various online accounts...

Evan Koh 2E1

I've honestly encountered click-jacking viruses, it was last year. My friends and relatives started getting weird messeges from my MSN which was offline so they got suspicous. My brother, told me about it and I got worried thinking, "My password's so long and secured. Who could've hacked into my account?" I consulted my friends and they told me, "such things can be done by viruses too, not just users you know..." I was very worried, not wanting to change my account as I've been using it for years. And it's very troublesome changing accounts as you have to contact everyone about your new account, change your email for your game accounts just in case, change your email for your subscriptions.


So I looked through the internet and the methods to deal with such viruses is to change your password, renew your account or shut your account down to prevent the virus from getting into your relatives' and friends' accounts. They might come after you...

So the best is to get an anti-virus or just be careful of which website you go to, you won't know when you'll be hit by these viruses.

Durga 4E3

I have used some one else's credit card to do online shopping before. Nothing much to worry because it was my father's credit card that i used.. It was really for the fun of it actually... My parents and i wanted to know how online shopping went on and wanted to explore it for ourselves. The result was logging onto ebay which i usually browsed through just to see the items available. Now it was really for a purpose! My mum wanted to get a handbag. My dad wanted a new it gadget. I just wanted a harry potter book. My want seemed more appropriate than that of my parents. They seemed to think along the same lines when a decision was made to purchase a harry potter book. We had lots of fun trying to browse through the various products to obtain our desired item. It was a glorious moment when i typed in my father's credit card number in his place. It almost felt like i was inserting the numbers of my own credit card. The transaction finally took place and i found myself with an installment of the harry potter series two days later. True enough, online shopping did make one feel happy and triumphant! I think that online shopping is nothing but merely another way to shop for our wants and needs. However supervision should always be accompanied especially during the use of some one else's credit card. Also, necessary security measures should be taken to ensure that we do not lose our hard earned money just because of a moment's folly. Online shopping like any other modern technology can be both a boon and bane, regarding the way the beholder chooses to use it.

Evan Koh 2E1

I did made purchase with somebody else's credit card. I find it useful and easy, getting something not found in Singapore from abroad, pretty neat.

But there are some things to do before making such online purchases. First, check if they're a qualified online purchase website like ebay and amazon. Next, check on the number of purchases customers made in the period of time. Websites that scams the credit card won't be a popular site and they sell their products cheaply, even though it's brand new. If they're popular, that means that they're a reliable source and is very trust-worthy. Then, check for tracking of purchases before purchasing the product. Tracking numbers are really useful as it allows you to track your purchase. Lastly, make sure that the item you purchased has a form or a reciept from your account and make sure to ask from the person who's allowing you to use his or her card to purchase such online purchases, especially if they're overseas.

I tried it myself with my father's credit card as it was my birthday and the item came safe and sound as I did all the above steps. You should too before making online purchases!

Olivia Phua 3A1

Internet Addiction

Nowadays, a household would at least have a computer at home. The advance in technology causes more and more people, especially teenagers to be addicted to the internet.

Parents are busy with their work and they tend to neglect their children. Children need the care and concern of their parents, especially when they are at their teenage life. However, if they do not get enough care from their parents, they will spend the time they have left on the computer. Hence, they would then spend hours sitting in front of the computer screen, surfing the internet or playing online games. When this happens, the uses of the internet increases. Besides being able to source for information, it became more of an entertainment.

Some teenagers tend to use their parents' trust in them as an advantage. As we know, some parents are not able to understand English well. Hence, their children would lie to them and say that they have to use the computer for studying purposes. However, when the computer is turned on, you will not be able to see the work that they are doing as they will be using the computer to surf the net.

Many teenagers sleep in class and cannot concentrate on their studies because they are using the computer without any limit. Besides this, they tend to skip a day's lesson just to have more time use the computer, which cause them to be isolated in their own world, not knowing what is happening around them and they will become more and more unsociable as they are living in the virtual world. If this continues, our future generation would follow in our footsteps. Hence, we should stop this from continuing.

Most of the teenagers think that the only activity that they can do is the surf the net. However, there are many more activities that they could do. Besides using the internet, they can study at home or at the library with their friends, have a picnic with their family, visit museums and exhibitions, or do outdoor sports.

In conclusion, teenagers should stop spending too much time on the computer and focus more on their studies and score well in their exams.

Violet Phua 3E2

Privacy of Cyber Wellness

Privacy is defined as a condition of being private or withdrawn. In this 21^st century, internet plays a critical role in man's life and provides a variety of applications to access which shows that the technology is improving rapidly. People spent hours sitting in front of their personal computer accessing to internet and got hooked onto where there might be more people getting hooked on it.

There are thousands, millions or instead billions of websites that people can access into via any net browser. There are approximately 198 countries accessible to internet and a record by Wikepedia, there are 1,733,933,741(25.6%) of internet users stated in 2009.

Internet social network like blogger, facebook, twitter, window live messenger are providing opportunities for people to interact with each other and make new friends from people of all over the world.

However, is there anyone who is concern about the privacy of cyber wellness?

The most common issue is where parents are not giving privacy to their child. Parents might have actions like peeping into what their child are doing when they are accessing to the internet. Where it really shows that the parants are not giving they child privacy. Parents might be worried that their child might visit those undesirable websites however parents are not noticed that their actions had deprived away their child's privacy.

Moreover, there are ways that we can do our part to protect our privacy from being deprived away too. 

For instance, when we should not post any of our personal informations on the web such as address,contact number, and ever our particulars.We should decide on the information if we want to reveal to whom, when and why as it might be use indiscrimately.

Moreover, we should be conscious when we are accessing to internet and beware on websites that offer some sort of reward or prize in exchange for your contact information or other personal details as it might a scam by some "organisations".

In conclusion, we should be "taking care" of our own priavcy from being deprived by others. Security expert Bruce Schneier once said,"Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we're doing nothing wrong at the time of surveillance".

Joyce Soen 3E2

Cyber bully

Nowadays, there is a high population of people having computers at home. More and more people, especially teenagers, are making new friends on the web. It is common to see teenagers going on to facebook or twitter to make new friends. Some people will be bolder in terms of commenting on people on the web as they may have the mind-set of not having to comment face-to-face, instead they are 'hiding behind' their computers. They tend to be commenting negatively most of the time, but they will usually say that they did not do it intentionally and they do not know that their comments would hurt the person. Most of the people would think that it is fun or they would do it to attract others' attention. It is really inconsiderate of them to do this. Sometimes, they did it due to peer pressure or to attract their parents' attention. It is common as most of the parents are too busy with their work to care for their children. Therefore most of them will use cyber bully to attract their parents' attention. In this case, they comment negatively on the other internet users without thinking twice or thinking of the consequences. This will cause them to comment without any limit or boundaries. This teaches us to think before we act. We should also be more careful when we make friends online

Rachel Tan 3E3

As much as I am embarrassed and guilty over it, I have to admit it.

I had always seen reports on it and mostly brushing it off, denying that I am one of them.
I was slowly turning into something unimaginable, that I had never expected to be.
Everyone was advising against it, and I had ignored them, thinking it was nothing bad and that it should've been avoided.
Now I have to come clean about this.
I'm going to say it: I was a computer addict.


Not many people know about it, though. I am a secret computer addict who gets onto the computer for hours a day and no one really knows about it. But then, it isn’t something I should be proud of. I had many pains during the peaks of my computer addiction.


Well, it began as the clueless me, entering a Korean fan forum and started getting into the chat. It was the normal chat till I felt that the users there were really welcoming. Before I even realized it, I had neglected one of the world’s most important necessities, food.

I got too stuck onto the internet to realize I was missing out lunch and dinner till my mom had to scream at me. But still, I ate in front of the computer, which makes little difference. I tried many days to kick off the addiction of waking up everyday, and then use the internet, sometimes just using it just to pass time. But it never really worked, considering about the fact that even though I still had homework and essay to do, I still switched on the laptop.


I had also ignored something I shouldn’t have: My beloved friends.
I had neglected my friends too and went for my internet ones. I didn’t know that I did, but then it all came to me.
I had to stop destructing my life.
So after some careful consideration, I decided to have my laptop locked up and sealed away from me. I made sure I didn’t have any contacts with it and read some library books to get my mind off the internet.
And now, I am glad that I am proclaimed “Addiction free”. I still have to use the computer here and then though, but I’m not what I was used to be.