The Internet has made being a guardian of values more difficult. The press tend to give negative incidents high exposure, without explaining true risks involved. If their stories are a guardian's primary source of information, then this person's assessment of potential risks will often be incorrect.

Problems increase by dubious salesmen trying to get onto kids' screens. Their highly automated technology enables them to find email addresses virtually all over the web (including on schools' web pages). Add salespersons of religions, moral ideas, political issues, and more. Also, as the Internet is a mirror of our real world, there will also always be some mentally sick persons, criminals, and adults with bad intentions out there.

Where the Internet differs from the real world is that it is just happens on a screen. Bombs cannot explode there. You cannot be bugged or raped there. The net is so big that undesirable incidents will rarely be seen by many.

Some install filters to control what kids see. Alas, it usually does not take them much time to find a way around them. If your kids do not have the necessary technical know-how, they probably have friends that have.

The only 100 percent safe solution is to ban kids from using the Internet, from getting friends in other countries, from hearing peers' viewpoints, plans and perspectives. Kidlink believes that teaching kids to live and learn in our new, multi-cultural environment is very important.

Next page: The Kidlink Environment