by Prin Dumas

Created on: November 05, 2009   Last Updated: February 27, 2011

There is no reason that a website should be dangerous. The average jobseeker and apartment-hunter considers Craigslist.org an international asset. It doesn't matter where a person lives, he or she may find a new love interest, a telecommuting part-time job, a vacation home, and even a free antique soon-to-be-located-on-someone's-curb all in one place. In recent years, however, Craigslist has developed some unfortunate media coverage. On April 10, 2009, the world began to view the online one-stop-shop as a place for predators, like the coined, Craigslist Killer (CBSnews.com). Since then, the website became a dangerous place.

Any savvy internet surfer will claim that the internet is perfectly safe for everyone, old and young. How does a person become savvy? It's certainly not inherent. With the exception of babies born in the new millennium, no one has grown up with computers, not even today's college students. They were born in 1991 or later.  The term www. had just been founded and released for commercial use that year (Computerhope.com.) Clearly, navigating the web has taken some time to become the information technology that it is today.

Craigslist provides an endless array of networking, essential for the currently unemployed. It is free, an asset to the student. The site provides a wide range of side jobs, too, necessary for any entrepreneurial spirit. There is even a personal ads section, relief for the lonely. There is nothing like it online at such an affordable price. The smartest Craigslist user knows how to read, and that is how they remain safe.  How?

1. All internet posts have relatively complete and clear information. If they do not, it is not the website's fault when a person chooses to blindly engage in a transaction.

2. Craigslist uses security measures to avoid automated spamming systems.

3. Craigslist provides all users the option to have an anonymous email. It is the poster's choice to reveal their true contact information.

4. A person may engage in several emails before determining the validity of an advertisement.

It is easy to be safe online, including Craigslist.  Crime will always find its way to the naive victim, and this is sometimes quite tragic. Websites, however, are a portal to information, an opportunity for the user to make a decision about a purchase or connection, professional or personal. Craigslist is as safe as a person's strength in internet surfing. It will always contain the best free connections at a national and international level.

One reminder about Craigslist is that it is an international website, exposing its users to a truly world-wide-web of people, good and bad. The best advice to maintain a safe relationship on Craigslist for professional or private use is to read and think before answering a post. Anyone may place a post on Craigslist. This really means anyone. The responsibility a user has on the internet is first and foremost to read. Anything that transpires after reading a post becomes part of a potential victim's decision-making process. Nothing makes a tragedy justified, but tragedies, online and on the ground, are almost always avoidable when people think before they act.

CBSnews.com http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/19/48hours/ma in5323194.shtml

Computerhope.com http://www.computerhope.com/history/1991.htm

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