Grades 5-8--The Internet explosion has brought a whole host of new legal and ethical issues to the forefront. Menhard examines some of the major questions raised by this technology, including filtering, copyright protection, privacy, piracy, and data encryption. A chapter entitled "The Dark Side of the Internet" touches on scams, hate groups, predators, and pornography. Each issue is well researched and discussed in a fairly balanced, albeit unexciting fashion. This volume reads like a textbook, and the dull black-and-white photographs do little to enhance the presentation. The information is as current as possible, but since no final solutions have been reached with regard to any of these debates, the shelf life of this book is clearly limited. Any student studying these topics would be wiser to use the Web itself as the primary research tool. Still, the book may be useful for a very basic introduction to the questions at hand, and is an acceptable starting point for assignments.
Ronni Krasnow, New York Public Library
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 6-12. This volume in the Issues in Focus series is sure to interest readers looking for hot Internet-related information. By beginning most chapters with an incident that usually resulted in a complex lawsuit and new Internet policies, Menhard creates a real-life connection to global cyberspace concerns, some so recent that they have yet to be clearly defined. Her examples are especially effective because so many are about young people: the Navajo student who won a computer then couldn't use it because she had no access to a phone line; Napster founder Shawn Fanning, who was sued for pirating music. There are plenty of facts and cyber vocabulary, and Menhard's explanations are so well presented that even Internet novices will easily grasp what's at issue. Thorough chapter notes citing mostly Internet addresses give student researchers plenty of leads to more information. Roger Leslie
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