Possible Pitfalls of the Internet

	excessive use leading to a neglect of homework, outdoor or other social activities, and heavy telephone bills accidentally,
	or deliberately, accessing inappropriate material: pictures, sounds or texts which are either dangerous, pornographic, offensive or unacceptable in some other way unwittingly
	or otherwise making inappropriate contact with individuals who may wish to cause them harm. We deal with each of these in turn below.

Inappropriate contacts

Children and young people often love the interactive elements of the Internet: the ability to send and receive instant messages, email or to take part in Chat Rooms. The problem is that because you normally cannot actually see the person you are communicating with, and because it is relatively easy to fake an identity online, you cannot be certain the person is who they say they are. Equally, because security on the Internet can sometimes be quite slack, you cannot be certain that someone else is not reading your messages or silently watching your conversation in a Chat Room and perhaps gleaning valuable information which they can later put to bad use.

Young people therefore need to know that unless and until they are absolutely certain of the identity of someone they are communicating with, they should proceed with caution and not necessarily accept everything a person says online at face value. Electronic signatures and encryption might eventually be able to help, as might the greater traceability of Internet users. But these are tomorrow's solutions rather than today's.

Children need to know about this kind of online stranger danger and they need to be on their guard. On this site we have provided a copy of the OpenGuide rules. Go through them individually and reach an agreement with your children about how they will behave online.

Parental control software is available which can help you underpin or enforce the rules and agreements you make with your children (http://kids.getnetwise.org/). Amongst other things this software can control who your child might send emails to or receive them from. The software can also block access to all or some Newsgroups or Chat Rooms. Newsgroups and Chat Rooms have been known to attract unsavoury types who sometimes pretend to be young people seeking contacts with other youngsters. Occasionally this had led to requests to exchange child pornography or even, in rare cases, for meetings where the fraudster might be hoping to abuse a child sexually or exploit them in some other way.

In the printed version of this guide we have put the OpenGuide rules on a piece of card at the end. You can tear out the card and sellotape or blu-tac it to the wall next to the computers. If you are reading this on the Internet and want to do something similar, you could always print off the OpenGuide rules and stick them on a piece of card to achieve the same result.

Because Chat Rooms in particular can be misused, many parents might be concerned to ensure that their children, especially their younger children, use only moderated chat rooms, i.e. Chat Rooms where a trained adult is normally present whenever the Chat Room is open and who is authorised to intervene to stop any exchanges which take an inappropriate turn. Ask your ISP if they provide moderated Chat services and, if they do, ask them about the policies which are enforced in the Chat Room, and about the training given to and checking done on the backgrounds of the people who are employed by them as moderators. Please note that some ISPs who claim to have moderated Chat Rooms don't actually have a person there all the time. They might dip in and out occasionally, or use software to alert them if certain predetermined words appear in a conversation. Obviously such systems are likely to be less effective, so ask. For more detailed advice and guidance on Chat Rooms go to www.chatdanger.com.