By Adam White

Children are taught to share and share alike, but a communal home computer can lead to parents and teenagers each drawing their own proverbial lines in the cyber-sand.

Teens don’t want Mom and Dad snooping around their chat transcripts and digital photo albums. Parents can’t afford to have junior mess up a crucial database or spreadsheet. Nowadays, nearly every member of the family has his or her own email and Facebook accounts, as well as personal hard-drive stashes of music and other media.

A computer shared by parents and teenagers is a reality in many modern homes. The financial issues associated with having multiple systems – especially given the way that peripherals like monitors, printers and external drives can add up – are enough to keep many families tethered to a single computer. Cyber-professionals warn that before privacy issues are even considered, more alarming concerns should be addressed first on a shared system.

“Before you even start talking about issues like privacy, you need to make sure you have your data protected,” said Dave Rose, owner of Rose Computer Technology Systems in South Burlington.

Rose suggests an image-based backup, which he says is easiest to use, runs by itself and is least prone to operator error. He recommends a product called Shadowprotect, which is offered with a free, 30-day trial period prior to purchase.

Protection from viruses and other types of “malware” – programs designed to infiltrate and infect a computer – is a no-brainer, according to Rose. He recommends the combined use of an up-to-date virus protection program along with a firewall between the computer and its Internet connection, to prevent infection.

“There are separate devices you can install that are typically superior to the ones you get from your Internet service provider,” Rose said.

One simple rule of thumb for avoiding malware – particularly “Trojan Horses” that seek entry into a computer system in order to infect it – is to adhere to a simple rule when it comes to email and pop-up ads that aren’t from a recognized and trusted source.

“Our favorite expression is that you should never click ‘here,’” Rose said. “Nine times out of 10, those types of emails are phishing attempts, designed to trick you into allowing that piece of malware access to your system. If you don’t know for sure, never click on one of those links.”

Another concern is that file sharing programs – a popular way that teenagers download music and movies – also pose vulnerability issues.

“Most tools that allow you to share files – sites like Limewire – also open you up for attack and infiltration,” Rose said.

Rose said that keeping individual tasks and settings separate on a shared computer is relatively easy for users of any of Microsoft’s operating system, which are designed to accommodate multiple users. He said that personalized settings for each user can be set up under “preferences” in Windows, allowing setups of aspects such as the OS’s desktop to be personalized and saved.

Rose said that parents who maintain important data in programs such as Quicken should not do so on a shared computer, simply because there is no way to completely eliminate the risk of that data being lost.

“It can be very difficult to prevent access to some of that data on the drive,” Rose said. “You can limit users’ rights, but it isn’t foolproof. Some kids are smarter than adults when it comes to getting around those types of things.”

A parent’s biggest concern about a shared computer is likely to be what his or her child is accessing with it. Rose said that preventing children from navigating to pornographic websites remains one of the top concerns he hears from clients, and that the best answer is another multi-faceted approach.

“The better – but more expensive – firewalls allow you to limit what your children have access to,” Rose said. “As far as where they’ve been and how to keep them safe, there are programs like Cybersitter that are designed to do just that.”