Computers and computer programs cost a lot of money and need to be taken care of and protected. There are a lot of dangers on the Internet. Some of these dangers are to the actual personal computers. It is important for parents to inform their children about the dangers of computer viruses. Children need to know how computers can get viruses, how to protect their computer from viruses, and what can happen to computers that get viruses. This article will help inform parents what to tell their children about viruses.
How can a computer get a virus
For a child to really understand what a parent is talking about when they tell them that the computer can get a virus, the parent needs to explain what a virus is exactly. A computer virus is a type of computer program that can actually duplicate itself and infect a computer without the knowledge or the permission of the computer user. Some viruses may modify the copies and sometimes the copies may modify themselves in a type of virus called a metamorphic virus.
How viruses spread
Computer viruses are spread only by one computer to another. One computer acts as the host computer and then infects another computer. Viruses are sent over networks or over the Internet. Viruses can also be carried from one computer to another by USB drives, CDs, or floppy disks. Another way viruses can spread is through infected files on network file systems.
What damage can viruses cause
Viruses have different types of purposes. Some viruses are programmed to damage a computer. Viruses damage computers by deleting files, or reformatting hard disks. Other viruses aren’t supposed to cause damage. They may just duplicate themselves or show a text, audio, or video message. Even though these viruses do not actually cause harm to the computer itself, they can take up a lot of computer memory so that other programs do not have enough space on the computer. Because of the space they take up, the computer can have erratic behavior or the system may even crash. Data can be lost when the system crashes causing a lot of problems for the user of the computer. The computer can slow down too, which can be frustration for the user.
How to remove viruses
If the family computer or a child’s own personal computer has a virus, it is important for the parent and child to learn how to get rid of the virus that is infecting the computer. There is a virus removal system called System Restore. This may by a good fit for an infected computer that has Windows Me, Windows Vista, or Windows XP. This system restores the critical system files and registry to a previous checkpoint. As long as the virus is not designed to corrupt restored files, this should get rid of the virus. It works by rebooting the system and restoring it.
Another way to remove a virus is for the computer owner to reinstall the operating system. By reformatting the operation system partition and then installing the operating system from its original medial they can remove the virus. This method might be the best way for removing viruses. After doing this process however, the person will have to reinstall all the other software that they previously had on their computer.
Parents need to tell their children how important it is not to download something from the Internet without their parents’ permission. They should also never open any emails from people they do not know. Sometimes viruses may come from emails of people they do know and may be from their buddy list. Parents need to inform their children that if they are asked to download something from an email they should first get permission. A virus can easily be downloaded from what seems like a harmless email from a friend.
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