Advantages and disadvantages of school children using the Internet for research

• The fact that the Internet is an easy tool to use and, once the child has learnt how to use the web; they can use search engines to find almost anything.
• There are over 161,000,000 websites dedicated to the learning process. Each of which have information that can be accessed easily.
• The internet can be accessed at all times which means that a child doesn’t need to take time out to go and visit a library to find some books on a relevant subject. Also, as many homes have a computer with Internet access, a child can stay at home to do the work.
• There is a great deal of software available to stop unwanted sites, viruses or ads coming up, so the child could be trusted to use the internet without being in danger as long as they bear in mind that privacy is important and as long as they do not disclose personal information over the web.
• You can get Current, topical information, such as news from around the world as the Internet is constantly being updated.
• Also, there are many sites, which help children to study through the use of different media such as online Learning.

Disadvantages include the fact that::

• Anyone can publish a web page to support his or her own intents and purposes. And so the content on the Internet varies from high-quality research to biased or misleading promotional materials to downright misinformation. It is very hard to tell for what purpose someone wrote an article on the Internet so the child would have to make up his or her minds also as there is no actual owner of the Internet do anyone can publish a webpage.
• There could be too much information and so the child may have to spend a lot of time sorting through the documents to get some relevant information
• Not all information is on the Internet and so the subject that the particular student may be researching may have more to it than is shown.
• There can be many people such as hackers etc. who are trying to access your computer whilst you are on a particular site. This is important to remember when using the Internet for anything.

In conclusion, I would say that the Internet is very useful to schoolchildren (like myself) in terms of its research potential but one must be aware of its limitations and should follow sensible practise in using it safely and wisely. However certain points must be remembered to ensure that the research produced is true and realistic.