Benefits of the Internet

Benefits of the Information Highway

"As an educational...tool users can learn about virtually any topic..."
 

There is a vast array of services available online. Reference information such as airline fares, encyclopedias, movie reviews, news, sports, stock quotes, and weather are readily available. Users can conduct transactions such as banking, making travel reservations, shopping, and trading stocks online. You can find information about your local schools, government, vital health matters, or read an out-of-town newspaper. Millions of people communicate through E-mail with family, friends, and colleagues around the world. Others use chat areas to make new friends who share common interests. You can even use the Internet to watch videos 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. 

Most people who go online have mainly positive experiences. But, like any endeavor — attending school, cooking, riding a bicycle, or traveling, — there are some risks and annoyances. 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, exploitation, and harassment 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.