They must consider who has put the information on-line and why. But those skills are just as necessary when using television, newspapers or books. However, the WWW is much more than a resource. As well as receiving information, anyone can produce their own pages using it as an extremely cheap form of self-publishing. It is quite easy to write simple WWW pages.
Gifted youngsters can be as creative and imaginative as they like.
As a self-publishing venture this is creative fun, educational, and cheap. As a communication device, electronic mail rivals the telephone and fax machine for convenience and speed and is used for business and academic as well as private use. For private use, two friends can correspond several times a day. Those of us who have watched the appeal of pen-friends diminish in the days or weeks it takes to get a response will understand the importance of the rapid delivery. Also email friendships are often struck up after one party has read the WWW page of the other and realised that they have something in common.