Internet safety – the issues

Despite the educational and social benefits of information and communication technologies, there are risks associated with their use, particularly for school-age library patrons.

Children and adolescents accessing the internet using a computer or another enabled device may be confronted with material that is disturbing or inappropriate. Although there are technological measures than can be adopted to minimise risks, other strategies include educating children as early as possible about the benefits and dangers of using the internet. It is extremely important to instruct children about how to be ‘street-smart’ and to use the internet in a safe and responsible manner.

Exposure to inappropriate material

Library patrons face the risk of exposure to material that is pornographic, sexually explicit or offensive, hateful or violent in nature, or that encourages activities that are dangerous or illegal. Some sites promote extreme political, violent, racist or sexist views. Such material can be accessed via the world wide web or newsgroups, shared in peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, or sent via email or instant messaging services.

Access of such material may occur inadvertently through searching for educational content about people, places or issues. Librarians should be aware of safe searching techniques or provide information to library patrons on how to deal with unsolicited, inappropriate material.

Physical danger

A risk associated with the internet is ‘stranger danger’—meeting someone online who may claim to be someone they are not. This may occur when a student provides personal information to someone they meet online. In some cases, paedophiles have used chat rooms, email and instant messages to gain a child’s confidence, and then arranged a face-to-face meeting (known as ‘online grooming’).

Commercialisation of internet and financial risks

The increase in the commercialisation of the internet can be identified in the World Wide Web, in email, online marketing, or even in gambling. Some websites are scam sites – they have been set up to deprive people of money or opportunity. Some websites may be bogus or dummy sites, for example websites supposedly for banks but which have been developed to deceive and coax people into providing credit card details (known as ‘phishing’). There is the risk that library patrons may put themselves and/or their family at financial risk by providing their own or their parents’ credit card details. The basic rule is that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Harassment and bullying

Cyber bullying can be carried out through an internet service such as email, chat rooms, discussion groups, instant messaging or web pages. It can also include bullying through mobile phone technologies such as SMS. Cyber bullying can include teasing and being made fun of, spreading rumours online, sending unwanted messages and defamation.

Privacy

Some websites prompt users to complete a form revealing their name, email address, age and gender, and sometimes even their telephone number and postal address, in order to access information. Some requests are legitimate – much depends on the nature of the website requesting the information. Providing personal information online can result in a person being targeted for spam (unsolicited email), advertising materials and/or viruses. Privacy issues also apply to library patrons developing personal websites and publishing online. Personal details, including photographs of themselves or others, may lead to the information being captured and reused by others for illicit purposes.

Unreliable information

Information on some websites may misrepresent the truth, be misleading, be out of date, biased or incorrect. Racist websites can claim to tell or represent the truth about complex social, cultural or historical issues in ways that appear logical and plausible. Such websites can actively merchandise or even recruit people.

Spam

‘Spam’ is the email equivalent of junk mail or nuisance telephone calls. It can simply be defined as all unsolicited electronic mail sent out in bulk to individuals or organisations that have not consented to receive it. Spam may include viruses or pornographic content. Spam is becoming increasingly prevalent and is an issue for any library patron with a personal email address. Filters can be used to prevent spam from entering a mailbox, but spammers are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to bypass filters. Library patrons need to recognise and delete spam without opening it.

Viruses

While email is a useful way of communicating and sharing information, risks include mail from unknown senders that contains virus-infected attachments, or following links in an email to virus-infected websites.

Back to Information and learning benefits of the internet | Table of contents | Forward to Managing the risks