Ridiculously dated computer safety page

It might be a good idea for people to educate themselves about safe conduct on the Internet. It might even be a responsibility that a sheriff’s office could take on.

But for goodness sake, if you’re going to write up an Internet-safety sheet — and post it on the Internet — then keep it up to date!

I LOL’d a lot at Thurston Country Sheriff’s Office page on “Children and Computers: the Hidden Dangers.” As a measure of how old it is, it doesn’t even mention “LOL”. But, it does have whoppers like this:

The “Information Super Highway,” which is made up of commercial online services such as Prodigy, America Online, CompuServe, and the Internet, allows millions of people around the world to communicate anonymously in a virtually uncontrolled electronic world.

You don’t say! The Internet? I hear they have that on computers these days. So, what are some signs of danger?

Computer files ending in GIF, JPG, BMP, TIF, PCX, DL, GL, FLI, MPG, AVI, MOV – these are picture or graphic files and parents should know what they illustrate. Image files may be pictures of a sexual nature and can be of very high quality, moving pictures, and even include sound.

You may also be concerned about the Internet if you child suddenly develops an obsession with Dungeons and Dragons or with Satanic phrases, or with words that use ‘ph’ instead of f. No lie.