A-Z the Internet Explained

(Thanks to NCH - The children's charity)

 

Address
The location of a web site. Sometimes address is used as shorthand for an individual’s personal email address.

 

Attachment
A file that arrives with an email. Normally you will know if an email has an attachment with it because a little icon of a paperclip will appear with the email. Generally you open the attachment simply by clicking on it although certain attachments will not open if you do not have specific programmes already loaded on your system. Some internet service providers will limit the size of files you can send or receive as attachments. Attachments coming from strangers or sources you do not know should be treated warily: they might contain viruses that could severely damage your computer.

 

Block
An instruction given to your computer not to allow certain types of activity on a particular machine, eg to stop access to particular web pages or to chatrooms.

 

Browser
A piece of software which allows you to use the world wide web. The two best known ones are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

 

 Cable modem
A special device which allows you to access the internet using cable TV.

 

Compact disc (CD)
Most modern software is now supplied on a CD. CD writers (and re-writers) are also becoming more common. This means that it is easier for large volumes of material to be copied and swapped, thus increasing the risk of a virus entering your system and also increasing the risk of potentially undesirable material coming into your home. Illegally copied CDs are swapped in playgrounds!

 

Chat
A means of communicating with people more or less instantaneously by typing messages which then appear on your computer screen, and are transmitted across the internet to be read by everyone else participating in the chat at that time. The conversation continues through the exchange of messages. Chat can either be moderated or un-moderated. In the latter case the conversation will be completely unsupervised and records of it are generally not kept. It is very easy to fake an identity when participating in a chat so be especially wary.

 

Chatroom
A place where chat happens on the internet.

 

Chatting
Taking part in a chat.

 

Click
Pressing on one of the buttons on a mouse to execute a command.

 

Computer network
A collection or series of computers that are connected to each other and generally can swap information very easily and rapidly. One way of thinking of the internet is as one big network where the telephone system the connects computers together.

 

Conference
Similar to a chat only a conference will probably be arranged for a certain time and on a certain subject. Chatrooms, by contrast, are running all the time and people dip in and out of them.

 

Cyberspace
Another way of referring to the internet.

 

 Disc
There are several kinds of discs: ordinary floppies, which are not floppy at all but are plastic squares normally containing up to 1.4 megabytes of data (although newer versions can contain a great deal more). DVDs (digital versatile dics) have enormous storage capacities. Hard discs are generally inside a computer and store your programees and data. These can be huge: their capacity is measured in gigabytes, ie in thousands of megabytes.

 

 E-commerce
Buying and selling over the internet.

 

 

Electronic signature
A special, encrypted code that identifies you to the recipient of an email.

 

 

Encryption
Software that takes any computer-readable data and converts it into an unreadable code that can only be unscrambled and made readable again by someone with the correct key.

 

Email
A message sent over the internet. It can be sent only to one person or many. Unsolicited email is known as spam.

 

Email address
Your personal and unique address on the internet. It is also often used as the basic means of identifying an internet user, eg when they subscribe to services or join in chats.

 

 Filter
A means of preventing certain types of material from reaching your computer while allowing others from the same source, eg you might filter out websites that show extremely violent images, but allow sites that show only low levels.

 

 Icon
An image which generally tells you about a specific function, eg a picture of a printer generally means that if you just click on that picture it will go into the print routine. These icons are normally intuitive and are alternatives to typing in often long-winded or difficult to remember commands.

 

Instant messaging
A form of chat. Generally you join a service and then whenever you log on to the internet your name will appear in a central register. You can then be contacted by anyone on the register although you will, of course, have to agree to accept their call. With some of the more popular forms of instant messaging you join a club and all members of the club are notified when any other member logs on.

 

Internet
A global network of connected computers.

 

Internet café
Public places where there are computers connected to the internet. Lots of places will let you use the machines without having to buy any food or drink. Often these places have little or no filtering or blocking software in place and the levels of supervision and support available can vary enormously.

 

Internet service provider (ISP)
A commercial company that provides internet access. Some charge a monthly fee, but in the UK most are now free. You just pay for the phone calls. Some of the larger ISPs include substantial resources and areas specially designed for children. Check out what is on offer.

 

 Log on
To enter your password and gain access to a computer or a network.

 

Log off
To sign off from a computer or a network.

 

 Minimise
Most modern programmes allow you to minimise them, usually by clicking once on an icon in the top right-hand side of the screen. This allows you to have several different programmes running at once but it also allows you to rapidly hide something that might be on your screen that you don’t want prying eyes to see. It’s a neat way of switching between homework and games!

 

Moderated chatroom
A chatroom where, usually, an adult is present to make sure the conversations taking place there do not break the company’s policies about online behaviour. Some companies do not have a human in their chatrooms. They use software which looks for particular words. If the words appear a moderator is notified and goes to take a look. If someone in the chatroom is found to be breaking the rules usually they will first be warned and then, if they persist, they can be thrown out and barred. However someone who is barred usually needs only to create a new email address. This gives them a new internet identity and they can get back in.

 

Moderator
A person who polices and supervises a chatroom, or a newsgroup. You should ask your internet service provider if they use moderators and, if they do, how they recruit and train, and what checks moderators go through before being taken on .

 

Modem
A device for connecting a computer to the telephone system so it can access the internet or other computers.

 

Mouse
A handheld device used for pointing and clicking as a means of issuing commands to a computer.

 

 Net smart
Being aware of the potential pitfalls of the internet and how to avoid them, or deal with them. It’s a modern equivalent of being streetwise.

Network
A collection or series of computers that are connected to each other and generally can swap information very easily and rapidly. One way of thinking of the internet is as one big network where the telephone system connects computers together.

 

Newsgroups
Like an electronic bulletin board where people with common interests can keep in touch and up to date. You post to the newsgroup using email and you can often include attachments. Much of the illegal material on the net circulates through newsgroups.

 

 Online
If you are online you are live on the internet.

 

 Parental control software
Programmes that allow parents or other responsible adults to control various aspects of how a particular computer or network might interact with the internet. Some internet service providers offer free parental control software to members.

 

Password
A code that gives you access to a computer or a network, or to some functions within a programme. If anyone else discovers the password they can pretend to be you or they can override any security settings you might have put in place. Most parental control software uses passwords. If your child reaches a site which you have blocked it will not be visible to the child but you could, by entering the password, allow it to be seen. Obviously therefore, if your child learns the password, they can get through to the site you want to block.

 

PIN
Personal information number: the same as a password only usually in number form only.

 

Posting
A posting is a message of some kind, usually in the form of an email sent to a newsgroup or a chatroom.

 

 Search engine
If you do not already know the address of a website you can use a search engine to find it for you. Normally you would just give the engine a clue as to the type of subject matter you were looking for, eg ‘Ancient Egypt.' However with some search engines you often get more than you bargained for as they can bring back thousands of replies, including some which are very far from what you are likely to be looking for. There are specialist search engines specifically for children, eg Yahooligans, which tend only to search among child-friendly sites 

 

Site
A specific location on the internet, generally a website.

 

Software
Otherwise known as a programme, ie instructions to a computer to perform certain tasks. Microsoft’s Word, for example, is a piece of software which does word-processing.

 

Spam
Unsolicited and therefore usually unwanted email. A high proportion of spam is pornographic and much of the rest is linked to financial scams of some kind.

 

Stranger danger
The risk that an unknown person, either an adult or a child, might do some harm to one of your children, generally through deceiving them or through some other kind of manipulation. In some of the more extreme cases on the internet children were persuaded to indulge in illegal sexual acts which they have photographed and sent to the strangers who asked them to do it in the first place. There have been cases where children have gone to meet people they have met on the internet, only to discover they were not who they claimed to be and were often a lot older. Some children have been raped following such encounters.

 

Subscribe
When you subscribe to something on the internet it is often free. You give your email address to an organisation, eg your favourite football club, and they send you information about themselves or their activities, events and so on. This can be a very valuable service but check to make sure that whoever you are giving your email address to will not then pass it on to third parties who will bombard you with offers for commercial goods and services you will never need or want.

 

Surf
When you are moving around between and within web sites you are surfing.

 

 URL
An abbreviation for uniform resource locator, another way of saying address.

 

Usenet
This means the same as newsgroup.

 

 Virus
A malicious piece of software which can do great damage to your computer or the programmes on it. They often come as attachments to emails or on discs which might have been swapped, in a playground for instance. It is very important to use anti-virus programmes to prevent them getting into your system and to prevent you from passing them on to anyone else.

 

 Web
The web, or the world wide web, consists of a whole series of sites put up by all sorts of organisations and individuals.

 

Web browser
A piece of software that allows you to use the world wide web. The two best known ones are Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

 

Web cam
A camera made specially to work with a computer. It can transmit still or video pictures, with or without sound, across the internet.