With more and more gadgets making communication that much easier, the modern phenomenon known as "social networking" is enjoying a big boom especially among teen-agers. The ability to get in touch with other teen-agers with similar hobbies or interests through the click of a mouse or by cellular phone can be a very fascinating experience for them. As parents, we all know that teen-agers can become reckless and let their guards down especially when they get excited and it is precisely these moments that online predators can be at their deadliest.

The Sophos website reported early this November that a British man was arrested for blackmailing schoolgirls into sending him their explicit photographs. The offender was obviously not just a pervert but knowledgeable in how to infect unprotected personal computers with malicious software. Another high profile case which occured in April of last year involved a 45-year-old-man in Cyprus who hacked into a teenage girl's computer and took compromising photos of her through her webcam. In a series of emails to the teenager, the man threatened to send the photos to all of the girl's email contacts unless she posed naked in front of the webcam. The girl refused and reported the blackmail to the police. The blackmailer was eventually arrested.

The fact remains though that the offenders are also knowledgeable in infecting computers with a virus. As a parent, would you not be scared that today's online sex offenders are also knowledgeable in computer programming?

Arresting these perverts is all good but certainly, the trauma and stress that the victims had to endure could easily have been avoided. The common denominator in these two cases was that both of the girls' personal computers were unprotected. In today's wired world, personal computers without any form of virus protection is like leaving your house's door wide open at all times--it is an invitation for felons to come in.

In the case of the British offender, he posed as a teenager inside a chatroom and invited his victims to swap photos with him online. Instead of receiving a photo, the victims actually received a trojan virus which allowed the perpetrator to hack into their computers. The Cypriot offender on the other hand gained access to his victim's computer when the victim opened an email with a trojan attached. These two methods are easily the most common ways of allowing cyber criminals into your computer especially if your computer has no anti virus software installed.

If you have not done so, perhaps it may be time to invite your teenagers for a short chat on computer safety especially if they spend a lot of time in front of the computer. If your teenagers are far more knowledgeable than you when it comes to operating the computer, all you have to do is tell them about the dangers of getting in touch with total strangers online. This way you do not need to dabble in any technical mumbo jumbo. However if your teenagers maintain a belligerent attitude, I would suggest that you make a point of the fact that the victims are all about the same age as they are and that they could easily have been the ones victimized.

You do not even have to go into the "I'm telling you this because I love you" speech, all you have to tell them is that you do not want to have to see them in the police station a crying mess and having to go through the tedious affair of identifying a perpetrator from a lineup or that you do not want to see them ending up in the police blotter page of your local newspaper. As parents, I trust you will know what to say when the time comes, or at least make something up. Now if there are any teenagers reading this, let me say to you that your parents take your online safety seriously because they love you.

After you have had your little chat with your teenagers, it is now time to focus your attention on the computer that is being used in their online activities. If you are the "administrator" of their comuter, then make sure there is at least some form of anti virus and anti spyware software installed. Additionally you can install a software firewall and an email filter. If you have left it to them to be responsible for their own computers, insist that they install the above-mentioned protective software immediately.

Sophos, which is an authority threat management solutions, in the same report states that the arrest of the British offender will not deter other cyber criminals from committing the same crime. Fact is, you do not even have to be an authority in online threats to know that these kinds of crime happen in all corners of the world practically all of the time in varying degrees. While casual users take their computer's security lightly, there will always be online predators smelling the opportunity to move in for a kill.