Never ever, under any circumstances give out, or post on a message board, personal information such as your name, home address, school name, or telephone number.

Take extra precautions if you decide to meet someone in person that you have only talked to online. Meet them in a well populated area. Either have a friend with you, or have a friend call you at a specific time to make sure you are ok.

As nice as people may seem there are a lot of people out there who claim to be someone they are not. There are people out there that will say that they are kids when they are in fact adults.

Be very cautious about saving passwords on a computer. It is handy to not have to type it in every time you open the site on your home computer, but you have to be extra cautious is your not on your personal computer.

Talk to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about safeguarding programs such as monitoring or filtering capabilities for your computer. Also make sure that your snit-virus programs are up to date and active on your computer.

When you are going to a new retail site for the first time, find and read their privacy policy regarding ordering. Also check to make sure that their site is secure before putting in your credit card information.

If you have children who go online you should monitor their activity, and usage, by keeping the computer in a visible area - not their bedroom. Also have them show you what they know how to do online, and show you their favorite sites.

If you have children consider using a software program that uses whitelisting. These programs allow a child to only access a preapproved list of websites set up by the parent or guardian.

Never open an email from people you don't know or an e-mail you were not expecting to get from someone. These e-mails may contain a virus that is designed to damage your computer, or to send personal information back to the sender.

When in chat rooms or on message boards or blogs its best to ignore obscene or offensive messages. Responding to them only causes them to respond to you in a more offensive way. There are people who take pleasure in stirring up trouble in the community sites.

Be careful before reading e-mail messages from unknown senders, and avoid downloading any attachments they may send you at all costs. If the sender is unkown, there is a strong possibility they are sending you a virus or worm that can infect your computer and damage your hard drive, and be spread to additional computers!

Be wary of any e-mail messages that appear to be official that are asking you to reply and provide your personal information, such as bank account number or social-security number. It is very easy to have your identity stolen online!

Remember that the internet archives everything. Whatever you post on the net could be there for years for all to see so be extremely careful with not posting misleading, embarassing, illegal, hurtful, or private information or images. And remember that just because you've taken something down off of your website, it doesn't mean the internet hasn't already archived it. Once its archived, it will always be there.
Think very carefully before you post!

Make sure you have good anti-spyware software installed on your computer. This will help prevent sites from being able to monitor your Internet usage and possibly collect your personal information.