You can read about 'hackers' - technical boffins who can get into places where they don't belong and which are supposed to be secure, break passwords, publish the details of your internet subscription, and so on; many parents and teachers are concerned about 'blue' web-sites; and the advertising is rather heavy when you visit certain web-sites.
But one can say that it's hardly worse than TV or the cinema, where you can see something completely inappropriate as an advert when one was expecting quite a different kind of experience.
On the Web, as in the rest of life, one can always avoid a return visit to a distasteful location: and the question of consciousness of what a child is experiencing is as relevant to TV and film as much as to the Internet.
On the other hand the Web gives just about unlimited and free access to the artistic production of the entire world, and creates stimulating contacts one would otherwise never have met: and not only 'cyber'-contacts either.
To give an example: shortly having meeting a like-minded Dane in a help-forum on the Web, we had agreed that I would call in when I was passing by, travelling by car between Sweden and England. In the end we spent the evening playing harp and accordion together in a pub in his home town - an unforgettable evening, and a lasting friendship, thanks to the Web...
|
|
This is how my good
friend Dale Johnson, |
MAIN PAGE
