Cracking the Internet code

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Some of the words and terms that you might hear may confuse you, so we've put together a quick guide, so you can sort out your ISPs from your MP3s...

www: World Wide Web; the universe of publicly available websites.
Walled Garden: an area of approved and safe material. There's normally a host or guide who monitors the service and checks that unsuitable behaviour, such as bad language, isn't being used.
Jpeg: still pictures.
Mpeg: moving images.
MP3: music file.
Exe: don't download this unless you're certain that this is a legitimate program you want on your computer. 'Exe' stands for 'execution' (executing a program) and might execute damaging software, such as allowing in a virus or giving someone unlimited access (this is also called a Trojan horse) to your computer.
Spam: unsolicited mail
ISP: Internet Service Provider - the people who hook your PC to the Web and usually provide you with e-mail services.
Filtering software: software used to filter out language or images, or block access to various sites.

Read on: How to check and change the privacy settings on social networking sites

Great homework sites

- BBC Schools
- Homework elephant
- Class brain
- Info please
- Homework help

Do's and Don'ts

Don't let kids download files from the Internet without checking with your computer help-desk. It could corrupt and destroy files.
Don't let them download Jpegs (pictures). Someone might encourage your children online to download their picture, but it might actually be a disguised corrupt file. Instead, go to the sender's website. If they haven't got one, leave it.
Do install an anti-virus check, such as Norton Anti-Virus (around £40 from computer stores).