Kids can use these sites to:

• Chat
• Play games
• Post and browse through photos and videos
• Blog
• Post an online profile

Unfortunately, some of the information kids post on their pages can also make them vulnerable to phishing scams, cyberbullying, and Internet predators. Here are several ways you can help your kids can use social websites more safely.

• Communicate with your children about their experiences. Encourage your children to tell you if something they encounter on one of these sites makes them feel anxious, uncomfortable or threatened. Stay calm and remind your kids they are not in trouble for bringing something to your attention. Let them know you will work with them to help resolve the situation for a positive outcome.
• Set your own house Internet rules. As soon as your children begin to use the Internet on their own, it is a good idea to come up with a list of rules for using the Internet that everyone can agree on. These rules should include whether your children can use social websites and how they can use them. For more information on setting rules, see Using family contracts to help protect your kids online.
• Ensure your kids follow age limits on the site. The recommended age for signing up for social websites is usually 13 and over. If your children are under the recommended age for these sites, do not let them use the sites. It is important to remember that you cannot rely on the services themselves to keep your underage child from signing up.
• Educate yourself about the site. Evaluate the sites that your child plans to use and make sure both you and your child understand the privacy policy and the code of conduct. Find out if the site monitors content that people post. Also, review your child’s page periodically. For more suggestions, see Tips on blogging safely for parents and kids.
• Insist that your children never meet anyone in person that they’ve communicated with online only, and encourage them to communicate only with people they’ve met in person. Kids are in real danger when they meet strangers in person whom they’ve communicated with online only. You can help protect your children by encouraging them to use these sites to communicate with their friends, but not with people they’ve never met in person.
  It might not be enough to simply tell your child not to talk to strangers, because your child might not consider someone they’ve “met” online to be a stranger. For more advice on protecting your children on the Internet, see Online predators: What you can do to minimize the risk.
• Ensure your kids don’t use full names. Have your children use only their first names or a nickname, but not a nickname that would attract inappropriate attention. Also, do not allow your children to post the full names of their friends.
• Be wary of other identifiable information in your child’s profile. Many social websites allow kids to join public groups that include everyone who goes to a certain school.
  Be careful when your children reveal this and other information that could be used to identify them, such as their school mascots, their workplaces,or the name of the towns they live in. Too much information can make your children vulnerable to cyberbullying, Internet predators, Internet fraud, or identity theft. For more information, see Recognize phishing scams and fake emails.
• Consider using a site that is not very public. Some websites allow you to password-protect your site or use other methods to help limit viewers to only people your child knows. With Windows Live Spaces, for example, you can set permissions for who can view your site, ranging from anyone on the Internet to only people you choose.
• Be smart about details in photographs. Explain to your children that photographs can reveal a lot of personal information. Encourage your children not to post photographs of themselves or their friends with clearly identifiable details such as street signs, license plates on their cars, or the name of their school on their sweatshirts.
• Warn your child about expressing emotions to strangers. You’ve probably already encouraged your kids not to communicate with strangers directly online. However, kids use social websites to write journals and poems that often express strong emotions. Explain to your children that many of these words can be read by anyone with access to the Internet and that predators often search out emotionally vulnerable kids. For more information, see things you can teach kids to improve their web safety.
• Teach your children about cyberbullying. As soon as your children are old enough to use social websites, talk to them about cyberbullying. Tell them that if they think they’re being cyberbullied, they should share this information right away with a parent, a teacher, or another adult that they trust. It’s also important to encourage kids to communicate with other people online in the same way they would face-to-face. Ask kids to treat other people the way they would prefer to be treated.
• Removal of your child’s page. If your children refuse to abide by the rules you’ve set to help protect their safety and you’ve attempted to help them change their behavior, you can contact the social website your child uses and ask them to remove the page. You may also want to investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as Windows Live Family Safety) as a complement to, not a replacement for, parental supervision.

Learn more information on helping protect your child on the Internet.

Source:  http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/kids-social.aspx

How does rogue security software get on my computer?

Rogue security software designers create legitimate looking pop-up windows that advertise security update software. These windows might appear on your screen while you surf the web.

The “updates” or “alerts” in the pop-up windows call for you to take some sort of action, such as clicking to install the software, accept recommended updates, or remove unwanted viruses or spyware. When you click, the rogue security software downloads to your computer.

Rogue security software might also appear in the list of search results when you are searching for trustworthy antispyware software, so it is important to protect your computer.

What does rogue security software do?

Rogue security software might report a virus, even though your computer is actually clean. The software might also fail to report viruses when your computer is infected. Inversely, sometimes, when you download rogue security software, it will install a virus or other malicious software on your computer so that the software has something to detect.

Some rogue security software might also:

• Lure you into a fraudulent transaction (for example, upgrading to a non-existent paid version of a program).
• Use social engineering to steal your personal information.
• Install malware that can go undetected as it steals your data.
• Launch pop-up windows with false or misleading alerts.
• Slow your computer or corrupt files.
• Disable Windows updates or disable updates to legitimate antivirus software.
• Prevent you from visiting antivirus vendor websites.

Rogue security software might also attempt to spoof the Microsoft security update process. Here’s an example of rogue security software that’s disguised as a Microsoft alert but that doesn’t come from Microsoft.

Example of a warning from a rogue security program known as AntivirusXP.

For more information about this threat, including analysis, prevention and recovery, see the Trojan:Win32/Antivirusxp entry in the Microsoft Malware Protection Center encyclopedia.

Here is the legitimate Microsoft Windows Security Center:

Screenshot of legitimate Microsoft Windows Security Center.

To help protect yourself from rogue security software:

• Install a firewall and keep it turned on.
• Use automatic updating to keep your operating system and software up to date.
• Install antivirus and antispyware software such as Microsoft Security Essentials and keep it updated. For links to other antivirus programs that work with Microsoft, see Microsoft Help and Support List of Antivirus Vendors.
• If your antivirus software does not include antispyware software, you should install a separate antispyware program such as Windows Defender and keep it updated. (Windows Defender is available as a free download for Windows XP and is included in Windows Vista.)
• Use caution when you click links in email or on social networking websites.
• Use a standard user account instead of an administrator account.
• Familiarize yourself with common phishing scams.

Source:  http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/antivirus-rogue.aspx