Safe and Secure
 | The Internet offers people almost limitless potential to enjoy, communicate, research and create. The Internet also holds a library of data for a range of business and educational uses, and it is increasingly being used for tasks such as personal banking and shopping. But the more we rely on the Internet, the more we need to be confident that our personal details are protected. Online fraud and privacy issues are major concerns for most people. We also need to ensure that our children can take advantage of the many benefits of the Internet without being exposed to adult material. |
Microsoft understands the importance of online safety and is committed to helping address technology abuses. Microsoft UK is dedicated to working with technology industry leaders, non-governmental organisations, governments, and schools so that we can all surf the Net safely.
Here are some examples of how we keep our products and the community in which we work safe:
Making Technology Secure
Junk e-mail, identity theft, viruses, and explicit materials are unfortunately a fact of life for most Internet users. Working with technology leaders and governments, Microsoft makes every effort to ensure that the World Wide Web cannot be used for criminal activity. Our Trustworthy Computing Initiative and Protect your PC campaign are good examples of the kinds of projects we have embarked on to help users defend themselves against malicious software.
For more information, please visit the Microsoft Security website.
We continue to make improvements to our technology and provide free security upgrades for a number of our most popular products. New security features in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and MSN, for example, can detect spyware and block pop-up advertisements and junk e-mail by default.
Xbox 360: The new Xbox 360 has new easy-to-use parental controls, which allows parents and caregivers to set the appropriate environment and decide which games their children can play based on game ratings.
For more information please visit: www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/xbox_360_family_settings.mspx.
Get Safe Online: This initiative was created by the Government, the National High Tech Crime Unit and leading businesses, such as Microsoft, working together to make the Internet a safer place. Get Safe Online will help individuals and small businesses protect themselves against internet threats such as viruses, span, spyware and online fraud.
For more information please visit: www.getsafeonline.org.
Keeping Children Safe
Microsoft is helping to protect online users by forging relationships with industry leaders and public sector organisations across the UK. Safety is key to our Citizenship work and in October 2003, Microsoft made a commitment to improving online child safety, and decided to close all MSN UK chat rooms. This message was directed to the small minority of people who seek to communicate inappropriately with children.
Additionally, MSN UK has been a long-term associate of the Internet Watch Foundation, an organisation that offers citizens a single point of contact for handling allegations of unlawful Internet content such as child pornography.
Educating people of all ages about the Internet is the key to online safety and we work closely with UK-based NGOs, helping to launch online safety sites aimed at teenagers.
For more information relating to how children can stay safe online, visit www.msn.co.uk/youngpeoplesafeonline.
Here are some examples of the programmes we are involved with which help keep the children in our community safe:
WebSafeCrackerz.com: This site has been set up to convey the importance of safe surfing to teenagers across the country. The site is devised with real examples of bullying and offers advice on how to deal with it. Microsoft also contributes to European Union anti-spam legislation and offers law enforcement training on how to track down child predators.
For more information please visit: www.WebSafeCrackerz.com.
The Virtual Global Taskforce – Created in 2003, The Virtual Global Taskforce is a direct response to lessons learned from investigations into online child abuse around the world. It is an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and companies such as Microsoft all working together to make the Internet a safer place. The Virtual Global Taskforce delivers innovative crime prevention and crime reduction initiatives to prevent and deter individuals from committing online child abuse.
For more information please visit: www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com.
West Midlands Police - A recent collaboration between the West Midlands Police, MSN and Combating Child Abuse online project share the goal of reducing harm to children online. Together the team protect children from criminals who use the Internet to meet and groom children and exchange images and information, such as children’s contact information, with other paedophiles.
There4me.com: There4me.com is an interactive website for 12-16 year olds which offers information, advice and counselling on a broad range of issues that are important to young people. Microsoft has partnered with the NSPCC on this project from the start, providing advice on security and technical issues, as well as financial support.
For more information please visit: www.there4me.com.