The Internet contains a wealth of valuable information, but it is often difficult to tell the good from the bad. With easy accessibility, low cost, and wide distribution, the Internet is a great medium for disseminating falsehoods and inaccuracies. The Internet has revolutionized the publishing and media industries. Anyone with an Internet connection can instantly share their thoughts and opinions with a worldwide audience. The result, according to Google, is that there are well over a trillion unique Web pages Keep in mind that your 13-year-old neighbor can publish on the Web as easily as the New York Times can!
Contrary to popular perception, everything you read on the Internet is carefully vetted and guaranteed to be absolutely 100% true only around 10% of the time.
(with the obvious exception of a small number of designated satirical sites such as Wikipedia).
Brought to you by the American Family Association. These other internets are often referred to as Darknets or the dark internet due to their unreachable because the guy called Google has not indexed them yet. They consist mainly of password protected porn networks and other dark strange websites like personal geocities pages that were never finished due to lack of motivation. Also many good websites exist in only the darkest places of the internet. The Internet is widely believed to be a dangerous place, with thousands of virtual streets lined with casinos, porn shops,scams, and drug dealers. There have been rumors on this Internet and possibly other Internets as well.
Since anyone can publish a Web site, you can never tell where that information comes from. That’s not the case: By using a relatively simple set of guidelines, you can evaluate the credibility of information on any Web site.
When you receive an alarmist chain letter in the mail or see an outrageous article on the cover of a supermarket tabloid, you may easily recognize these as false. Some readers do not automatically question similar information on the Web or in an email forwarded by a friend. The Internet is still relatively new as a widespread method of communication, and many people are not yet savvy about identifying electronic hoaxes.
While most false information is not malicious, beware of scams intended to frighten or cheat you. Some common email scams are familiar from other media: get rich quick schemes; fad diets; and threatening email chain letters. But new technology begets new scams, in fact, it collected senders’ email addresses so they could be sold for mailing lists.
What can you do to protect yourself from these types of scams?
Here are a few simple internet tips :
- Be a critical reader. Question what you see, and remember that Internet information is no more likely to be true than what you read in print media.
- Check the source. Try to determine the origin of any information you read, and make sure the source is reliable. Email without an author or a source is probably worthless.
- Don’t download any software or .exe files from web sites or email unless you are sure of the source. You could be inviting a virus onto your computer.
- Beware of supposedly true stories that happened to “a friend of a friend.” This is a common technique in urban myths to add credibility to a story. Similarly, don’t assume that references legitimize a mailing—they may be part of the scam.
- Don’t reply to emails that contain a link to an unfamiliar email address or URL. There may be a hidden fee.
- Don’t perpetuate scams or contribute to Internet traffic congestion by forwarding email of dubious origin.
- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Using your common sense is the best protection against scams.
- Above all, say the librarians of the University of California at Berkeley, you should approach all online information with “healthy skepticism” [source: UC Berkeley]. Use the same analytical tools you would use to examine any other form of media. In other words, consider the source.
