I often talk about online safety issues. See my Oct. 8 post here. Typo-squating is just one more danger to watch for. How does it work? People register domain names with common misspellings of very popular sites.

When you or your child accidentally enter that misspelled address or URL in your browser, you end up on a porno site, or a site that will lure you into a scam and grab your email address. Or it will download malicious code onto your computer, etc. No fun at all for children, right?

Some 127,000 web sites have been found that may be , of which more than one-third contained adult content. Many are common misspellings of children’s web sites.

This problem has been around for a long time, but seems to be increasing lately, perhaps due to the ease with which you can buy and sell domain names. Microsoft says that about 2,000 are registered DAILY which contain its trademarked terms.

Generally, if you misspell a web address you have a one in fourteen chance of ending up at a malicious site. Popular game sites such as and have a risk twice as high. It is estimated there will be 8,000 URLs containing the word iPhone by year-end.

Be careful when typing in web addresses. Make Desktop shortcuts for your kids to their favorite sites, so they do not have to type in the address. And please go and read that Oct. 8 post.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here: => http://MyPCSecuritySite.com

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