Thursday, January 5, 2006

Internet Safety and Stopping Abuse

One of our readers, taking the tutorial, wrote this to me this morning:
he walked in and had a rageful fit that I was doing this tutorial....he almost broke the computer, and really scared me.
In most cases, I think we should let our mates know that we are finding resources and we aren't going to take it any longer. However, when violence is an issue, our safety comes first. On the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence pages they have some info on erasing your tracks:
Taking all of the actions on this page may not prevent an abuser from discovering your email and Internet activity. The safest way to find information on the Internet is to go to a safer computer. Some suggestions would be your local library, a friend's house or your workplace. Other safety suggestions: Change your password often, do not pick obvious words or numbers for your password, and make sure to include a combination of letters and numbers for your password.

Does anyone else have some things to add for our reader?


2 comments:

  1. Learn to keep two windows open at all times. The second one on something inocuous like MSNBC or iVillage. Then when you hear him coming you can click off one page and go to the other. Firefox has a great "tab" system for links that allows you to close one down fast.

    Be SURE to empty your cache too. You know when an abuser acts that way - its a sure sign they are an abuse. My ex pulled all the cords out of our old computer and even installed spyware just to get on me about visiting health related sites.

    Hang in there

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  2. Dear Fighter, those are really good suggestions. I just received another email, from a guy this time, and the kind of violence against him was poisoning! His abusive wife sort of slipped things into his food. When he found out, she left him and now he has to deal with a bad liver and kidneys. When spouses are abusive, they don't always "get" you in an overt violent act--sometimes they are covert!

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful in how you use language.