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Anastasia Balezdrova

Attacks, harassment and the beating of children by their classmates are an old phenomenon, which is tending to increase in today's fast-paced era. Usually, the attackers are children who are stronger physically, more open and aggressive and their victims are the quiet and weaker ones.

After its appearance, the Internet enters the lives of an increasing number of people every day, who in turn transfer their feelings, emotions and actions online, and attacks and harassment along with them.

Research carried out in different countries shows that an increasing number of children are becoming victims of the so-called cyber bullying, which is mockery, ridiculing, rude jokes and even extortion in cyberspace with serious consequences for the psyche of the victims. The interesting thing here is that the victims are no longer the weakest and most unpopular classmates, but the children who enjoy the attention of all their classmates.

Despite the phenomenal development of the internet, many parents do not know how to help their children when faced with such attacks. GRReporter contacted Diamandis Kitridis - computer specialist and CEO of the Citrine Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing Agency.

In his opinion, parents can take simple but essential steps if they want to protect their children from the bad side of the internet.

"Parents can do something simple but very significant. Until their children turn 16, the computer should not be in their room. It must be in a common room, and the screen should be placed so that the child feels the parents looking at it. Moreover, there are web sites where they can find settings allowing them to block web sites with content inappropriate for children. In this way, the parents can control the pages visited by their children".

The specialist advises the parents who detect a case of cyber attack on their children to immediately alert the appropriate web page on which it occurred. "If, however, the attacks continue, they can turn to the anti-electronic crimes service and file a complaint. It is advisable to print and record any information that is associated with the cyber attack, and to make a screenshot of the screen. All these data are valuable for the people who will investigate the case".

According to Diamandis Kitridis, even the largest web sites with millions of users, such as the Facebook social network respond immediately to signals for hacked accounts. "We had a similar case with a customer recently. Someone had stolen his images and created a new profile with his name. We reported the attack on Facebook and in just five minutes, the administrators sent a message to the mobile phone that our customer had stated in his genuine profile, confirmed that it belonged to him and then destroyed the fake profile. There was no need for any institution to intervene. The procedures of this type of web sites are automated and they immediately respond to such attacks".

So, what should we do to protect ourselves? According to the specialist, the solution is not to turn away from all these new ways of communication. "Of course, we can safely use our real names and all things that can be found in an easy way anyway. For example, if our home telephone number is listed in the directory, there is no reason for us not to add it to our profile in the social network. The point is not to enter things that we do not want to make public, such as the mobile phone number, for example. We may also use the option to limit access to it to certain people".

We should be very careful when choosing the password for our e-mail or for the account in any of the social networks.

"We have to be very careful with the selection of data in the password for our e-mail, the account in social networks, etc. Many people choose the date of their birth or any other combination of numbers, which someone else can easily reveal. What we have to do is to make a combination of numbers, letters and symbols arranged in a completely random manner. Then, we must remember it. The truth is that there is no full security. If the object of someone is to find out our password and to enter our account or e-mail, he or she can do it. I therefore advise customers not to use in the password data that they would not want to become known to other people".

Specialists advise that the password should have at least 10 characters and it should not match other passwords like that of e-banking for example.

According to Diamandis, the reasons for such attacks in cyberspace are concrete. "In the first case, the hackers want to demonstrate their skills in order to be employed then as security specialists or to fix the omissions in the electronic systems of a company. The second group are common scammers who hack the computers of other people to profit illegally. In the past, we have had many examples of the use of fake identity cards in banks. They send e-mails to the potential victims and try to make them give them their personal data and then, they steal their bank assets. In the third case, we are talking about the sale of citizens' personal data to companies for different purposes".

The specialist says that the most common attacks are ostentatious and believes that with a little more consideration, the internet can be safe for everyone.