Good educational material does exist on the Internet, but it's often hard to find and harder to use. Many Internet-linked computers provide mostly junk, in the form of dumb games, useless shareware, and irrelevant databases. The culture of the Internet isn't always welcoming to young people. Electronic mail and discussions in the newsgroups are sometimes worse than rude. An innocent question or comment may trigger an avalanche of abuse.
Women using the Internet often find themselves pestered and harassed by electronic lechers.
The only way for women to escape unwanted attention is to use initials instead of a first name. Even more alarming, some adults go online to seek out children. The purpose is to dump obscene or abusive remarks on the kids' monitors. Schools with their own private bulletin board system can keep out such unwelcome intruders, but it's a different story out on the Internet itself. If you can't put yourself in your reader's shoes, the computer is a terrible way to communicate.