Dear Editor
I read your article on “The internet is a dangerous place” and I am writing this letter to respond to that particular article. I disagree with your opinion and believe the internet is not as dangerous as you wrote it out to be. There are many advantages of using the internet such as the ability to socialize freely with other people online, information, entertainment, e-mail and services .The dangers of spamming, mis-leading information, abuse of information, theft of personal information and viruses threat can be fixed with internet security software such as Norton and Trend Micro also precautions can be taken by users to make using the internet more safer.
As I have already stated the internet has many uses one of them is socializing networks e.g. bebo, facebook, twitter, Hi-Five. Socializing websites are a door to teenagers communicating it is very popular with teens spending hours online , all these websites allow users to create their own page and socialize with many friends online at the same time, this enables users to keep in contact with friends weather they are in the same town or if they live in different continents. Security measures are available such as the privatization of pages. Bebo give their users the option to make their page private and only allow friends to view their page or to make it public which will be available for anyone to view. Users also have the attainability to block certain people from their pages and report abuse on other users to the social network. The sites also have security tips information for both parents and teens to educate them about precautions they can take to keep themselves safe on the networking sites such as not adding friends that they do not know ; providing less personal information as possible and keeping weary of random pages .
Another use for the internet is to obtain information. The internet has easy access to information it has online dictionary, enclyopedia and websites that assist students with school work such as Sparknotes, NZQA and answers.com all these websites are important and help students with assignments. With the problem of mis-leading information students are told from teachers to use a range of different websites and resources to confirm the information found on the internet. Schools also know that students can use the internet and abuse it by using it to cheat in assignments, so teachers make students sign a paper which they agree that the work is done by them and nothing was directly copied of from another resource, this assures that students won’t abuse the internet for assignments.
Another popular use of the internet is entertainment, e-mail and services. The internet is used to share videos, photos, and music. Youtube is a website that allows users to upload videos of themselves, documentaries, advertising, information and many other items, these are useful to teachers and students as they provide a visual aspect of a particular subject and in general for amusement of other users. The internet is also used to watch online live-streaming of sports, weather, news and programmes allowing consumers to watch items that they have probably missed. E-mailing online allows businesses, students, teachers or anybody to communicate with other people. Viruses and spamming usually go through e-mail so the email networks have security measures in place to stop spamming. In Yahoo Mail there are spamming filters where all spam received are sent to a folder it is then up to the mail client weather they want to delete it or not they also have the option to block a certain e-mail address from sending them any further mail that they do not want. Email networks also scan every mail for viruses and prevent them from entering their network and erasing information or stealing it.
However there are many security issues with the internet such as spamming, mis-leading information, abuse of information, theft of personal information and viruses there are security options available out there websites insure that their users are safe from any potential risks and set-up software that scan for viruses/spam, protect personal information such as bank card numbers and passwords, and they also give their costumers information on how they can take steps to make sure that they and their families are safe when using the internet.
Therefore I conclude that the use of the internet has more advantages than disadvantages and that it is not a dangerous place, also actions are being taken to make sure that the internet is safe. I also believe that as technology is becoming more advanced new software will be made to delete the threat of viruses and spam for good.
