Re: How do you protect yourself when surfing them?

If you browse original child model sites, the precautions don't need to be extra strong unless and until you intend to buy the materials.

If you go visiting reposting sites or fora, then yes, they need to be extra strong - or better yet, don't go.

The precautions should not be any different than the general ones you should anyway take when browsing.

First: don't use IE or any IE-based browser, with the possible exception for Microsoft pages designed to work with it and even that, only if you really need them and they're not properly workable under other browser.

Second: further than that, and unless you have several computers, you should use different browsers for different traffic. While not extremely necessary, this helps keep all of your different fragments of your internet habits apart, which comes handy for enhanced privacy.

Also, having several browsers allows you to use specific browsers for specific sites or sets of sites according to their level of sensitivity, security, trust and frequency of use. For instance, you probably want to allow scripts from your bank; cookies from your mail or blog; videos from your news sources - that kind of thing. Simply put, you don't always want the highest security achievable - although that is desirable, web 2.0 grade internet almost seems designed to be insecure, and unless you don't want any of the perks of it, at some point you would have to compromise...

Third: Yes, Firefox is probably the best "big" browser out there, probably the easiest to configure to very high security settings, and the one that will most likely still work with almost every page on the web. That said, I would recommend, for even greater security, XeroBank, which has the Tor routing included already. This is especially true if you do not know how to follow the first three pieces of Catalyst's advice. If you do, however, then Firefox is probably already fine, once tuned accordingly.

Fourth: generally speaking, I would recommend, for "general" traffic, and all the more so for "sensitive":
- going through an anonymous proxy (do an IP check on yourself to verify such anonymity - not every proxy is anonymous, and not every proxy that claims to be, is)
- go encrypted whenever possible (it's just amazing how many sites are NOT encrypted...)
- disable all scripts, whether manually or through something like the NoScript add-on mentioned by Catalyst. Beware: this will usually disable java- or flash- embedded videos, slideshows, pdf's, dialogue boxes, etc...
- disable all cookies. You don't need any cookies unless you're logging in to something, period. A model site that leaves a cookie without you having attempted to login as a member automatically qualifies as suspicious.
- disable all remote images and all zero-length images, which can be and are used to work around this kind of protection.