What are the dangers?
(With gratitude to The Internet Watch Foundation)

If you don't know what you should be worried about, this section explains the risks and links you through to the relevant advice dealing with them.
When your child logs on to the Internet, he or she is linking up to a vast network of computers which extends all over the globe. Children can enjoy worldwide access to material that is educational and entertaining, and to services that enable them to communicate with and learn about people from other countries and cultures.

The Internet neither belongs to nor is controlled by any one person, organisation or government. This lack of central control is sometimes portrayed as anarchic and dangerous. But on the whole it offers huge benefits. Unlike any other medium, the Internet gives everyone the chance to be a publisher - to create and publish material for people to see across the world. This is an unprecedented creative opportunity for adults and children alike.

The flip side of this is that other people may use the Internet in ways which you may find offensive, or which are actually illegal. In using the Net you need to know about the possible hazards, particularly for children, and how you can avoid them.

The Net is not a legal vacuum - the law applies online exactly as it does offline, and people who break the law are subject to investigation and prosecution. In a growing number of countries specialist hotlines have been set up to tackle the problem of illegal content. Here in the UK, the main hotline is on this site. If you want to report something you think is illegal, visit our Hotline section.

But most material on the Internet is legal, so people have a right both to publish it and to access it. At the same time you have the right to control your own use of the Net by choosing what you personally don't want to see, or don't want your children to see. Software tools are available to help you select the material you access, particularly on the World Wide Web. In addition, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do vary in the range of services they offer to their subscribers, particularly in areas such as newsgroups and chat, so you can choose your ISP accordingly.

The main dangers people are concerned about can be grouped into:
Contact - the greatest danger in the virtual world is letting online contact lead to a meeting in the real world with someone who is not what they pretended to be and who poses a real physical threat. Young people must re-learn the old stranger = danger messages in a new context and use the anonymity of the Net to hide their real location.

Content - legal or illegal, there are some sorts of content that might harm younger users, or that offend the values and standards that you want to apply to your children's development. You can agree the ground rules about where your children go and how they behave, and perhaps choose some software tools to help apply your rules.

Commerce - with the growth of e-commerce there are increasing concerns that in an unregulated global market place young people (and adults too!) may be exploited by dubious marketing practices or simply cheated out of their money.