Browsing/Surfing

What is Browsing or Web Surfing?

When a computer has a connection to the Internet through an ISP (Internet Service Provider) the computer user can view Internet content through a software program called a browser. Popular browsers are Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Netscape's Navigator, Mozzila's Firefox, and Opera. A browser assembles the various files that are used to create a Web page and displays that page to the user. The Web pages are linked and resemble, in a way, tree limbs as one page leads to other pages the way that one branch leads to other branches. Following the links from one Web page to another is called browsing or surfing. It is adventurous in that you do not know, necessarily, what you will find. Just as you would not want to read every book or magazine ever published, you would not want to visit every Web site published. Anyone can put up a site with just about anything on it. There are many sites devoted to good and worthwhile causes. There are information/educational sites, personal/family sites, news sites, and commercial sites. However, there are also sites for hate groups, pornography and illegally traded items such as weapons, drugs, and software.

Dangers:

The primary danger is for children. They may discover content that is sexually explicit, violent, hateful or simply inappropriate. Sites often request information to join or to login and it is not always a good idea to give that information out. Once something is posted to the Internet there is no way to get that information back and you have no control over what happens to the information or where it goes.

Adults may also be mislead into giving out personal information. It is very easy to be fooled by someone whose is intent is to mislead people. Social Engineering is the term used when an individual tries to trick a user into revealing information that they normally would not reveal. That information may include credit card numbers, a social security number, a bank account number, or passwords. It often starts with a "phishing" email, which looks and sounds official and requests that you click on a link and go to a secure Web page to update your personal information. However, when browsing, you may be enticed to give information in order to "win" something, receive information, or join the site. Regardless of the lure, generally the link you click will take you to a site that looks authentic; the only difference is where your information is sent. This can lead to identity theft, which can take years to resolve and is very costly.

Typosquatting is the deliberate naming of a site using a common misspelling of a popular site name. These sites count on people finding them by accident and generally the material is inappropriate in nature. Children can very easily make the typing mistakes that result in them accessing these sites.

Another danger is the perceived anonymity of the Internet. In the online environment there is a tendency by many people to behave differently than they would in normal face-to-face situations. The term for this is disinhibition. People tend, teens especially, to feel anonymous on the Internet and may do or say things that they normally would not do or say in their everyday lives. These activities can very often be traced and if revealed cause significant legal problems, financial penalties and embarrassment.

Resources:

The WiredKids site http://www.wiredkids.org/parents/dangers/index.html
Search Engines http://www.geekgirls.com/net_search_for_all_seasons.htm
Browser Errors http://www.geekgirls.com/net_browser_errors.htm