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Thursday, January 10, 2002

Parents, you've heard that the Internet is rife with unsavory individuals. Certainly, as former teen-agers, you know how teens and preteens tend to let their hormones guide their actions. But in case this wasn't clear, the case of Alicia Kozakiewicz has driven the point home.

On New Year's Eve, a man from Herndon, Va., allegedly whisked Alicia several hundred miles from her home in Western Pennsylvania. But the dastardly deed took more than a single evening. It took stalking via Internet -- either by Web or chat or instant message -- or a combination over a period of days or maybe weeks. As I write this, we don't have much information. We do know that Alicia used the Internet a lot and that her abductor used the Internet to find and lure her from home.

The Internet shrinks distances. In this case, it put Herndon, Va., and Crafton Heights within easy reach of each other. It also shrinks the distance between our children and the people we most fear that they'll meet. A computer in a bedroom is an invitation to stalkers to prey on our children. For these reasons, parents must closely monitor the use of the Internet.

My wife and I limit our children's online time -- and make sure that we monitor their Internet use.

		Ask Your Questions Have a question for David Radin? Contact him at his Web site

This whole affair also has prompted me to dust off a presentation that I used to make to school districts and PTAs called "The Internet And Your Child." If your group wants me to talk to either the adults or the children about safety on the Internet, send e-mail to safechild-pg@mmasters.com.

Q: The main screen on my neighbor's computer has a picture of his family. Mine has a Windows logo. How do I change mine to his?

A: I assume you want a picture of your family, not his, on your computer desktop. You'll need to scan the picture into your system, then turn it into "wallpaper." If you have a scanner and have scanned photos before, scan your wallpaper photo the same way. If you don't have a scanner, ask your neighbor to scan it for you and give it to you on diskette or via e-mail. Then save it on your hard drive as a .bmp or .gif image.

To convert it to wallpaper, right-click on an empty spot on your desktop. Select [Properties]. When the properties box pops up, go to "Background" tab to click on the [Browse...] button. Navigate to the image you just saved. Then click [Okay]. When you return to the "Background" tab, click on the name of the image.

You may now stretch the image to fill the screen, center it on the screen, or tile it with many copies side by side. To select one of these methods, use the drop-down list in the bottom right corner of the same dialog box. Click [Apply] to view it now or [Okay] to return to your desktop.