Benefits of The Information Highway
The vast array of services that you currently find online is constantly growing. Reference information such as news, weather, sports, stock quotes, movie reviews, encyclopedias, and airline fares are readily available online. Users can conduct transactions such as trading stocks, making travel reservations, banking, and shopping online. You can find information about your local schools and government, read an out-of-town newspaper, or obtain vital health information. Millions of people communicate through electronic mail (E-mail) with family and friends around the world. Others use the public message board chat areas to make new friends who share common interests. You can even use the Internet to watch video and listen to audio programs produced by major media companies, businesses, organizations, and even individuals. As an educational and entertainment tool users can learn about virtually any topic, visit a museum, take a college course, or play an endless number of computer games with other users or against the computer itself.
"As an educational...tool users can learn about virtually any topic..."
Most people who go online have mainly positive experiences. But, like any endeavor - traveling, cooking, or attending school - there are some risks. The online world, like the rest of society, is made up of a wide array of people. Most are decent and respectful, but some may be rude, obnoxious, insulting, or even mean and exploitative. Children get a lot of benefit from being online, but they can also be targets of crime and exploitation in this as in any other environment. Trusting, curious, and anxious to explore this new world and the relationships it brings, children need parental supervision and common-sense advice on how to be sure that their experiences in "cyberspace" are happy, healthy, and productive.
