Introduction
Quality
The Internet is very large and contains an enormous amount of information. Some of this is very unreliable – this reflects the fact that anyone can publish information on the net, there are no editors and no quality control. However, much of the information online is of high quality and the Internet is one of the most important sources of information available today.
Security and Safety
There is very little that you can do on the Internet that will break anything. You should feel free to explore and experiment, surfing and browsing from website to website and becoming familiar with the technology and what it can do.
However, you should bear in mind that there are large amounts of offensive and sometimes harmful material on the Internet, often not suitable for juvenile or sensitive audiences. There are technologies available for protecting users from such material and you may wish to look into this.
Downloading anything other than text or pictures from the Internet should be done with great care. In particular, be cautious about downloading and installing software that you find on the net. A small but significant proportion of such material contains viruses and other programs that can damage your computer and the information that you store on it, as well as attacking other computers to which yours is connected. Ask the advice of someone with more experience, if in doubt.
