THE DARK SIDE OF EMAIL Email has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. It is hard to imagine life without it. You can attach just about anything to an email, such as pictures, music, movies and documents. Whilst Email has benefits such as being an incredibly cheap, quick and easy way to communicate with people around the globe, it has certain risks.   Your child can be contacted by a complete stranger who could pretend to be someone they aren't. There have been many reported cases of young children being groomed for sex by older predators pretending to be young teens. Would you allow a forty-three year old man, you did not know, communicate with your 13 year-old child on a regular basis in the real world? Clearly not, yet this danger is highly prevalent on the Internet. Your child should never communicate with anyone they do not know. When your child communicates with others, they could unwittingly give out too much information. It is best for them not to give out information that could make them identifiable such as their name, or location, or phone contact details. Your child can unwittingly download attachments with viruses without you ever knowing. Viruses are dangerous as they could cause serious problems to your computer and even allow hackers access your computer information. Viruses are often designed to automatically spread to other computer users and senders are often unaware that they have sent a virus. Some viruses become active as soon as the attachment is clicked and others will lie dormant until something happens to execute their code. Children should take care with attachments even if they are received from someone they know. A virus checker should always be used before opening any attachments. Your child can unwittingly download attachments with inappropriate images without you ever knowing. Children should take care with attachments even if received from someone they know and close the message and not respond. If your children receive attachments that upset them or make them feel uncomfortable in any way, they should also tell an adult Your child can be targeted with spam and adverts from inappropriate adult rated sites trying to sell them products. Your child should exercise care when receiving emails from unknown sources. If in doubt as to their validity, children should delete the message or seek advice from an adult. If children receive messages that upset them or make them feel uncomfortable in any way, they should also tell an adult. A spam filter can be used to help remove this type of risk. Your child could be the target of flaming (abusive or insulting emails from others who do not agree with their opinion, or views). Again, if your children receive messages that upset them or make them feel uncomfortable in any way, they should tell an adult. Your child could be the target of bombing (programs emailed to your child to try and crash or damage their computer), or mail bombing (multiple messages, or large messages emailed to your child to try to make their email program crash). Children should tell an adult if this occurs and report the matter to your Internet Service Provider. Your child can be harassed or bullied, or stalked on line, so make sure they know that if this happens, they can report the event to their Internet Service Provider. If your child is made to feel uncomfortable in an email, they should seek advice from an adult. Sites such as Be Safe Online and Bullying Online provide useful resources to tackle the issue. If you know of any other risks, please share them with us by clicking here eZpZemail has built in parental control, spam filters and anti virus checkers to remove the above risks, so sign up today.