8. Issues with the Internet

Information overload

There is almost too much information on the Internet. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that is out there.

When you type a search term into a search engine, you won't just get a few results, you will get millions!

Search engines do a good job at prioritising which are the most relevant sites for your search term. However that one piece of information that you are after might be on page 345 of the results. There is very little chance that you are going to find it.

Information can be biased

No one owns the Internet and there is nothing to stop people posting their opinions and points of view on web pages, forums, blogs.

Many people believe what they read on the Internet. You need to be careful and think about what you are reading. An awful lot of material and web sites are biased and only give you one point of view.

Information can be inaccurate

With a book or encyclopedia, you can be pretty confident that what you are reading has been checked, cross referenced and is correct. But with the Internet, no one checks what has been written. The website that looks like it has all of the answers to your history homework might just be incorrect. You need to double check things out for yourself - don't just believe what you read.

Offensive material - fraudulent sites

No matter how careful you are when using the Internet, there is always the possibility that you will come across some sites that contain offensive or even illegal material. Use the 'safe search' option in your favourite search engine.

Be assured, even adults use the 'safe search' just to reduce the time-wasting, inappropriate results of an innocent search term. The idea is to use the Internet as a tool to get on with the job in hand, whatever that may be.