The Internet can provide children with a lot of very useful information. As an educational and entertainment tool the Internet offers many benefits. Users can learn about virtually any topic, visit a museum, take a college course, or play an endless number of computer games with other user people online. For most people, using the Internet is a positive experience.

But, there are websites that contain material that is unsuitable for children. Some websites may even have material that is actually illegal. These sites may be encouraging the use of hard & soft drugs, showing pornographic images, promoting racism, fostering terrorism and even bomb-making.

One way to make sure that your children have a positive experience when browsing the Internet is to supervise your children online as much as possible.

There is also software available which can complement parental supervision of children when they are online. This software – usually called, Internet Content Filters – can be set to automatically block access to unsuitable websites, chat rooms and newsgroups, as well as particular search engine results. These programs can be configured by parents to filter out sites that they deem to be inappropriate for their children depending on their age and the cultural or religious values of the family.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) also provide content filtering as well. For example, if you have an account with AOL, there is a content filtering service included. However, you do need to activate the service and set it up.

Filters can block access to websites based on a list of banned sites (black list) or on a list of acceptable websites (white lists). They can operate on your home computer or through your ISP. Some filters can even help control the time your child spends online, and others may ban based on content.

But it’s important to also remember that filters are not foolproof, and is no substitute for parental supervision. One of the problems that you might encounter with content filtering is “over-blocking” where some good websites get blocked with the bad ones. For example, you might find that the Amnesty International website is blocked by the Internet Content Filters set up for your children because there are articles about “terrorists” and “terrorism”. If this happens, you – as a parent - can use your access to the Internet to check out the site and, if you think that it is ok, give your children access to the site.
Or if you are looking for the Essex Flower show, you may find that the word SEX has been banned!

Ok, we have installed the critical updates for Windows and we have installed the latest Anti-Virus software package, our computer is now safe and secure. Right? No, not by a long chalk.

One of the most irritating things about the Internet is the amount of unsolicited email advertisements – also known as "SPAM" - that we receive in our email inbox. It just keeps coming and coming – with offers of get-rich-quick schemes, herbal medicines that claim to make you big and strong and lots of other stuff that you don’t want – and we have to spend time deleting all of this garbage.

But don’t think that spam is just harmless advertising like the circulars we get through the letterbox with the post. Most of the spam that we receive in our inbox are malicious; they are designed to steal our money or identity.

IMPORTANT NOTE: European law forbids anybody from sending advertising literature by email from within the EU to anybody who has not agreed to receive it. This is known as the “opt-in law”. So, according to European law you should only receive advertising literature by email if you have agreed to it. The problem is that virtually all of the spam is coming from outside the EU. The main culprits are in the US. In the US, the law requires that all spam have an opt-out option. You might notice that on some of the spam you get there is a place labelled “Unsubscribe” or “Remove Me” to remove your name from their mailing list. However, these do not work or they are designed to confirm your email address so that the spammers can target you with even more spam. So, don’t use the “Unsubscribe” or “Remove Me” option on unsolicited email.

With the filtering software that’s available you would think that spammers would be stopped in their tracks. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened and no matter how hard we try some of their garbage will get through. The rule here is to just delete it. Send it to the “Deleted Items” or “Trash” folder and then delete everything that’s in that folder.

What if should I do I receive unsolicited email?

• If you do not know who the email is from
  DO NOT OPEN IT. Delete it
  
• If it contains an attachment and you do not know who it is from and you are not expecting this attachment chances are it is a virus...
  DO NOT OPEN IT. Delete it.
  
• Never reply or unsubscribe to unsolicited email, as this will confirm your email address to the spammers and you will be targeted for more spam
  DO NOT OPEN IT. Delete it.

• Keep your personal email address private, never post it on a public website, bulletin board or newsgroup. Spammers use software that can scans websites looking for email addresses.
  
• Only ever give your personal email address to friends, family and for work purposes.
  
• When shopping online, create another email address, using a nickname and not your personal name in the address.
  
• When shopping online ensure that you check/uncheck the box for third party information to be sent to you.
  
• Similarly if you use a newsgroup or bulletin board you can setup an online email adddress like Hotmail or Yahoo account to dump unwanted emails and spam, without interfering with your personal emails.