If you think about it, the Internet seems to be the safest way of enjoying ourselves we surf from home, mostly from our own room, and there is no need to fear any dangers. And in fact, the Internet is a safe and amazing place, full of information, activities, new people and challenges. But, when someone decides to exploit the Internet with malicious purposes, it immediately becomes a mysterious and highly dangerous place. Many a time, teenagers who have not surfed intelligently have become victims of physical and emotional abuse or, at best, have only caused significant damage to the computer.
What are the dangers lurking on the Internet?
Intimidation, ha****ment and humiliation
When you receive e-mails or enter chats, forums and blogs, you could be exposed to ha****ing, annoying, and humiliating contents. These do not constitute any danger to your lives, but you may sometimes find these contents insulting and they may put you in a bad mood or lower your self-confidence.
Sexual abuse and Pedophilia
Pedophilia is sexual attraction that an adult feels toward children and teenagers of both sexes. Many pedophiles look for their next prey on Internet sites, e-mails, chats, forums, etc. As most times we do not know who the person on the other side of the screen is, we might expose information about ourselves that someone could misuse; or might even arrange a meeting with a pedophile, rapist or any person who wants to harm us, and who takes advantage of the trust we developed in them when we met on the Internet.
Drugs, Alcohol and Gambling
There are Internet sites with information encouraging the use of drugs, alcohol or engaging in gambling. These are unsupervised sites and the information they contain is illegal (and mostly unreliable as well). Various discussion groups also sometimes exchange impressions on these subjects, and as we have no idea who the people behind the keyboard are, we can never know whether they are not themselves drug addicts, alcoholics, or simply people interested in disseminating malicious material.
Exposure to pornographic contents
Lets be honest pornographic contents arouse our curiosity. But the Internet could expose us to pornographic material that is unsupervised, that operates illegally, and that displays exaggerated and unreliable information that could offend, and give us an incorrect picture about everything connected to sex and intimate relationships.
Sites inciting racism
Various Internet sites preach racism or anti-Semitism, deny the Holocaust, and offend people of different religions and various nations with racist slurs. These are private sites with no supervision or censorship. They are mostly illegal and the information they contain is unreliable and usually completely false.
Legal and financial risks
Even if you are unaware of it, while surfing the Internet, answering e-mails, participating in chats, or buying a product through the Internet you are at risk of performing a problematic or illegal act, such as violating human rights, libel, transmitting another persons credit-card details, etc. These acts have negative legal and financial implications that could get you into trouble, even if you did not intend to harm anyone.
Exposing the computer to viruses
We are not talking about a danger to our body or mind, but still, we would all be happy to avoid the situation in which the computer catches a virus, goes haywire, or simply stops working. Unfamiliar e-mails and surfing on unsecured sites could expose us to viruses, worms, and other diseases that prevent our computers from functioning, cause us great disappointment, and cost our parents a lot of money in repairs.
-- Edited by +0p$h0++@ (Mod) on Wednesday 7th of October 2009 10:13:02 PM