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Teach your children well
about the Web

Back in the Paleolithic age, when I was in high school, we researched our term papers at an old-fashioned place called the library using a quaint analog device called an encyclopedia.

Nowadays when I watch my kids do their research over the Net, I'm at once impressed at the amount of great data available but I'm also concerned about their abilities to evaluate online material.

The obvious issue is just because something is published online doesn't make it true. (Obviously one can say the same about books but its so much easier to post a Web site than publish an encyclopedia.)

Clearly, basic computer skills such as navigating the Web are not enough for our kids or our selves.

There are some terrific sources of accurate information on the Internet but its also full of misinformation, distortions and outright lies, not to mention hate sites that spew racist propaganda.

I firmly believe kids need to understand the nuances of searching the Web. A recent newspaper story illustrates this concept quite vividly. It seems a teacher of Scandinavian literature at the University of California (a school that is very tough to get into) had students use the Net to research an assignment on the Vikings. The teacher described that being Berkeley students, they had the sense to restrict their searches to "vikings NOT minnesota."

Despite this, some of the students were willing to believe a Web site that described early Viking settlements in Oklahoma. As most people realize, the old Vikings were keen navigators but never quite made it to the Midwest.

Students, who should have known better, did not use the kind of judgment they should have. The Web has no veracity filters and students need to apply screens that they never really had to when I was growing up. If you consider that many adolescents use the Web to research issues they are averse to discuss with adults, such as drug use, sexual behavior, sexual identity, depression or suicide it's important that they have a firm foundation or understanding of the subtleties of Internet literacy.

In a recent survey by the Pew Project on the Internet and American Life, 87 percent of search-engine users said they found what they were looking for all or most of the time. That's all well and good but the same survey only 38 percent of search-engine users comprehended the difference between unpaid and sponsored search results. Furthermore, only 18 percent could tell which was which.

To complicate things more, studies have shown that most people judge the credibility of a Web site by its appearance, rather than by checking who sponsors it and why. Even the BBC, which understands something about the news business, was recently faked out by a false Dow Chemical Web site into broadcasting an interview with an environmentalist posing as a company spokesman.

The upshot is that we're only beginning to understand the complexities that have emerged with the reliance on the Internet as a source of information. Even if you understand your information needs, are in a position to critically evaluate your sources and determine if the site sponsors are reputable, you're going to have trouble evaluating Web sites and data from areas that you know little about.

For example how do you evaluate Web data to decide which online degree program on comparative religion to recommend to your cousin?

The truth is, only when tackling an issue that is of personal interest, such as your health or what new laptop to buy, are you going to be more inclined to dig really deep. At that point you will make very sure you have all the skills you need.

If you can pass those skills onto your kids, you've done your homework as a parent.

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