Electronic Frontiers Georgia

The EFG Education Working Group

Cyberspace can be a strange and confusing place to even the most avid of users. It is a realm that can not be defined by physical boundaries, and is virtually impossible to be regulated by any single entity. Though cyberspace may seem to be, a lawless land, filled with rogue hackers and pornography, the Internet's positive attributes far outweigh it's negative perception.

This page was set up to help you understand the basics of the Internet, answer any questions, and dispel any fears that you may have.

What is there to learn?

On the Internet, there are some basic rules of etiquette that should be observed, dubbed Netiquitte (Internet etiquette). Netiquette has been developed over the years as a way to make the Internet a more pleasant place. Here are a few links we think anyone new to the Internet should follow.

How did the Internet come about?

The Internet is a relatively new phenomenon It grew out of an experiment begun in the late sixties by the U.S. Department of Defense. They wanted to create a computer network that would continue to function in the event of a disaster such as a nuclear war. If part of the network were damaged or destroyed, messages could still be transported over the rest of the network. The network they constructed was dubbed ARPANET, which linked U.S. scientific and academic researchers together. ARPANET is the basis for today's vast Internet.

In 1985, a new network was devised by the National Science Foundation called NSFNET, a collection of independent networks interconnected for research and educational communications. NSFNET started a national service, based on ARPANET, provided free to U.S. research and educational institutions. These institutions and researchers then linked their own networks with the "backbone" provided by NSFNET.

Soon NSFNET drew the attention of private entities such as MCI and Sprint who linked their own networks to NSFNET.

The National Science Foundation was responsible for the creation of the InterNIC, which is now owned by AT&T Corp. and Network Solutions Inc. The InterNIC is the repository for the network addresses that enable transmission, such as your E-mail to be sent from one system to another.

Is the Internet safe for my Children ?

The Internet, like the real, world has its good parts and its bad. The Internet promotes literacy and higher learning, but unfortunately as everywhere else, there are the few who try to take advantage of others.

The Internet provides an abundance of very good resources for your children. The list below is only a fraction of available places for education and recreation on the Internet.

A good page to check out if you are concerned about your children is Larry Magid's Kids Page. The best advise for parents, is to teach your children basic common sense practices, such as not to give out your name, phone number, or address.

Pornography can be a concern for parents. Pornography it is not something accidentally stumbled upon. It must be sought by the user. Keeping your children from viewing pornography is not difficult. There are numerous software programs that filter content you do not wish your children to view.

Here are a few links to obtain these filtering programs:

If you have any questions of comments please email efg@ninja.techwood.org

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