The T'internet

I rather like this image, it is a visual description of just one portion of the internet. I think it's rather beautiful and almost ethereal. Strange really when you consider that the vast number of people on this are using the internet to tweet that they've just taken a dump or are watching cats fall comically into swimming pools.

Today, we tackle the internet.

It probably wasn't in the minds of the scholars at Stanford University first began to develop the groundwork for what would become the Internet, that their creation would not only be arguably the most important in modern society, but that for many the epitome of it would be to spend the day watching hedgehogs learn to ride a bicycle.

A lot of debate on the internet is on whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. This is rather a facile and pointless argument. It is like arguing whether humankind is a good or bad thing, or religion is a good or bad thing. There are plus and minuses to every facet of human life. On plus side we have Einstein, Gandhi, Horizon and Chocolate. On the other we have Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, Strictly Come Dancing and Marmite.

The internet is no different.

It is certainly vast repository of knowledge. Never before has the world had so much information to hand just a few button presses or mouse clicks away. We haven't really got to grips with how powerful this actually is yet. We still cling to traditional ways of reading, writing, learning and use the internet as 'a resource' when in many cases it can be so much more. In time it will be. Soon it will become "The resource".

When we finally get libraries online and books downloadable from them for free (for a short period of time, as in the way we loan books today), we'll have achieved something truly worthwhile.

Of course, the best and most useful tool the internet serves is of course, for nakedness. The online world has opened up a world of pleasurely leisure for the world and all kinds of acts are routinely played out in front of some wide-eyed, serial self-abuser with clothes around their ankles. This is not such a bad thing, it beats having to watch foreign films on TV until the early hours in the hope of a glimpse of some French ladies nipple. If anything, at least the porn-searchers of today are sleeping better.

The variety of stuff out there is amazing. To see just how vast it is, think of two unconnected words. Any two. Try dandruff and semester. Or Cheese and Umbilical. Then click search and watch how many articles you can search through. It's staggering isn't it?

People often say "Billions of pages, but there's nothing any good..." I often think that this is more a statement showing the persons lack of imagination than anything else. There is tonnes of wonderful stuff on the internet, you just have to know where to look or at least the imagination to think where it could be.

The freedom that defines the internet is, according to some, its greatest weapon and its greatest downfall. Terrorists can strike using google maps to aide their reconnaissnace, as happened with the Mumbai terror attacks. There are websites that incite violence and hatred. This is enough to have some clamouring for stricter controls on what should be on the net in the first place.

That's not the point. If we educate people enough to understand that this is not a good thing, then we can trust them to come to their own considered judgement. People only look for these sites for a specific reason, if you take away the reasons they have to look for the sites, then you solve the issue. Driving the sites underground will make no difference. The internet is impossible to police.

Which is why people need to stop worrying. The best police officer is in charge of things on the internet. Yourself. If you lack the control or ability to judge what is right for you, then use the internet for its intended purpose and educate yourself. Learn how to protect you and your family online. A good starting place is CEOP. That's where my kids will be heading as soon as I decide they can have full access and begin interacting with others.

Just don't be surprised if, by the time they are 19, they haven't seen enough tits, bits and sword-wielding flatulent, dancing hamsters to last a lifetime.