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Peace of Mind Vol 1-30: Online Safety: Keeping Teenagers Safe

Crime News: Accused Serial Killer in BC

What can we do for our children’s online safety? A 21-year-old man who is currently awaiting trial for murdering a teenage girl is now being charged with at least three other murders.

The man, who is from Prince George, British Columbia, was arrested recently for the 2010 murder of a 15-year-old girl from Fraser Lake, BC. He has now been charged with three additional murders that took place in northern BC in 2009. All of his alleged victims have been women.

The accused serial killer was known as “an avid user of social media and technology” according to police. He was charged in the three additional murders after a 10-month RCMP investigation. Make sure your talk to your children about online safety.

Safety Tips

Awareness is incredibly important. You should always be aware of who is around you at any given time. You should also pay attention to what is going on around you. Is that stranger getting closer and closer to you? Is the man who is leaving the bar intoxicated and thus possibly irrational? Stay away from these bad situations.

You’ll also want to be aware of your surroundings. Is there a dark alley nearby that you could be pushed into? Is anyone else on the street that could help if you were in trouble? Recognizing the danger around you is the key to staying safe.

If you’re getting into your car, look through the windows to make sure no one is in the back seat or anywhere else in the vehicle. Once you’re inside your car, lock the doors immediately.

In addition to staying aware, make sure that you never go with a stranger to another location. This is true even if the person threatens you. He or she intends to hurt you anyway, so stay where you are. There is a good chance you are in a public place where you can be seen by someone else. Moving to a more remote area only increases the chances that you will suffer harm.

In all cases, staying alert and aware of your surroundings and trusting your instincts is the right path to take.

Keeping Teenagers Safe Online

The Internet contains many excellent opportunities for people of all ages. For most teenagers, it likely takes up a large portion of their lives. Teenagers use the Internet to study, play games, socialize, make plans, share photos, communicate and more.

However, there are some dangers with using the Internet, especially for teenagers. You’ll want to follow these online safety tips to keep your teenagers safe online.

In order to increase an online safety, teach your children about privacy and the potential dangers of sharing things online. While teenagers will likely want to share photos, videos and email online, make sure that they understand how easy it is for items shared online to get into the wrong hands. An email can be forwarded and pictures – even those posted on social networks with privacy settings – can be saved and passed on. Let your teenagers know that anything shared online has the potential to become public, so be careful what is shared. Provocative or incriminating images should never be shared online, even with trusted friends. These images can very easily fall into the wrong hands.

When teenagers are having conversations online, they can sometimes get into trouble. Online bullying is a very real problem that impacts the lives of many teenagers. Make sure your teenagers know that people may act in a certain way in order to get them to share details that they can then exploit. A 2008 University of Toronto study showed that half of the students questioned had reported having been cyberbullied. Online bullying is dangerous because it is constant and can come from many different sources. It can lead to public embarrassment, depression and even suicide. Teach your teenagers to remain respectful online and to report any bullying they see or encounter to an adult.

Many teenagers fail to report online bullying or harassment to parents or other adults because they worry about having their computers or phones taken away from them. Let your kids know that they should always feel like they can come to you with a problem that took place online and that they won’t be in any trouble if they were acting respectfully and responsibly.

For online safety, make sure your teenagers know that they don’t need to give their phone number, their email address or accept friend requests from everyone. Strangers can use Internet services to get teenagers to lower their guard and share private details about themselves. Teach your children to only share these details with those they know personally and to take precautions even then.

Make sure your teenagers understand that they should never give out passwords or log in details to anyone in any situation.

Teenagers should never meet someone in person that they have only talked to online. Tell your children that they should let you know if anyone online wants to meet them in person.

Using Lighting To Keep Your Home Safe

Darkness is a powerful tool for criminals. They use it to stay hidden and commit crimes without being seen. However, you can use light as a powerful tool to fight crime.

Properly lighting your home is an excellent way to deter crime and catch criminals in the act.

Motion-activated lighting is an excellent way to illuminate the exterior of your home. Motion-activated lights are an energy-efficient way to protect your home as they only turn on when they sense motion nearby. This means you’ll use less electricity which saves you money and helps the environment.

You should make a point to install lighting around the perimeter of your property as well as alongside your driveway and walkway. You should also install lights above all entrances including your garage door.

Lighting isn’t just great for deterring and spotting crime. It also helps security cameras capture higher-quality video. In the event that a crime does take place, lighting will help your security cameras in identifying suspects.

A house that has lightning installed properly is less likely to be a target for criminals than a house that is dark.

Online Safety: Protecting Your Valuable Data

The data stored on your computer is valuable for a number of reasons. You could have valuable financial data stored on your computer. You could have critical business information. You could have priceless photos. Whatever it is you are storing, it’s probably important.

It’s also important to know that computer hard drives are not invincible. They can break like any other piece of mechanical equipment and they will take your data with you when they fail. In some cases data can be recovered from a damaged hard drive, but it is often very expensive and it is not covered under your hard drive’s warranty.

This is why it is important to have copies of your data stored on a back-up hard drive. For the online safety it is important to have every piece of critical data stored in at least two places. The more important your data is, and the more often it is updated, the more frequently you should back up.

You may want to consider keeping one copy of your most critical data in a different location, such as a friend or family member’s house or in a storage facility. If there was a fire or other disaster in your home, it would take your computer and your original back-up with it. If you have an off-site back-up, you’ll be able to save your most critical data. There are also online back-up services for this reason. Follow our tips for your online safety.

You’ll also want to frequently check your back-ups to ensure that they are still working. There is no worse feeling in the world than losing your primary copy, checking your back-up and then noticing that those files are corrupted.

SafeTech’s 2011 City Crime Report Now Available

Protect yourself! Find out where and what type of crime is happening in your neighbourhood and your city with SafeTech’s 2011 City Crime Report. Use the 2011 City Crime Report to:
  • Determine exactly where crime is happening in Canada
  • Examine the types of crime taking place in your region and across the country
  • Compare different areas of the country on several different types of crime
  • Recognize the severity and likelihood of crime taking place in your city
  • Understand the overall crime situation in this country
Crime statistics vary drastically across the country and only by knowing the information for your region can you properly protect yourself, your family and your possessions. Online safety is also very important.

SafeTech Alarm Systems has been protecting people and property for over 20 years. We have compiled crime statistics from across Canada, broken them down by province and city and presented them in a straightforward manner that will help keep you safe!·· To receive a free copy of SafeTech Alarm Systems’ Canadian City Crime Report 2011, please click here.

What Do You Want to See?

Do you have a question, comment or story idea for “Peace of Mind“? Do you have some news regarding recent crimes or break-ins? Email us and let us know!

Online Technical Support, Special Promotions and More!

On the SafeTech Alarm Systems website, you’ll have access to special product promotions as well! Don’t miss out on exciting deals and promotional offers!

We’re always working to add and improve website features in order make our website more appealing, more functional and easier to navigate. We invite you to visit the new site and let us know what you think. Stay tuned for even more enhancements to the SafeTech Alarm Systems website over the next few months!

Need help troubleshooting your alarm system?

The safetechalarms.ca online technical support features and live online help that will guide you through any issue!

Now you can solve any problems you may have with your alarm system quickly, easily and without picking up the phone or waiting for a technician to arrive! We even offer live online chat with members of our technical support team if you have any questions. Visit our technical support page here.

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SafeTech Alarm System 121 Willowdale, Suite # 202 North York, ON, M2N 6A3, Canada
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Staying Secure Online
staying secure onlineThese days people are sharing more and more of their personal information online. This is good for socializing, but bad for staying secure online. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and a variety of other social media websites, it is now easier than ever to invite friends to social events, post photos, share vacation plans and keep your social circle informed than ever before.

However, with this freedom comes new security risks as well. When sharing information online it’s important to remember that anything you share online could be easily distributed to the general public. You always need to be thinking of staying secure online and acting with this in mind.

Staying Secure Online: Tips

The first thing you should always do before sharing personal information online is consider who could possibly see your posting. Social media messages are easily shared and forwarded to others, so do not post anything that you do not want others to see.

It is also incredibly important to keep a diligent eye on your privacy settings. These are a crucial part of staying secure online. You will want to make sure that the general settings as well as the settings for particular posts or events are set to your specifications. Failure to do so can have very serious consequences.

For example, a teenage girl in the United Kingdom recently created a Facebook invitation for her birthday party. She meant to invite 15 friends, but accidentally marked the event as “public” rather than private. This meant that anyone could see the invite. More than 21,000 people replied and anyone who visited the public invitation was able to see the girl’s picture, address and phone number.

Obviously this was a huge security risk to the girl and her family. Always be aware of who can see the information that you post online and remember that things you mean to keep private may not be. This is important to remember when staying secure online.

The same is true for posting about your location. A post on Facebook or Twitter that you are going to be on vacation for a month could be seen by someone who wants to break into your home.

Police in British Columbia and Ontario recently warned people to avoid mentioning vacation plans on Twitter and other social media website for this exact reason. It is important for staying secure online.

Podcast link: https://www.safetechalarms.com/podcast/Staying-Secure-Online.mp3
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