Internet Safety

E-Mail

Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of the most popular uses for the Internet and has become a standard means of communication for businesses, families, schools and organizations.  E-mail works by sending messages from the source to the destination, indicated by the e-mail address.  E-mail addresses are usually in the form of "username@host.domain".   Thus, the address "president@whitehouse.gov" indicates that this message is intended for the user president on the host machine called whitehouse in the government (gov) domain.  Understanding how to parse e-mail addresses is an important skill in being a safe e-mail user, as we'll see shortly.

One of the fundamental facts to keep in mind about e-mail is that it is inherently non-secure.  E-mail messages are, most of the time, sent through the Internet in clear text.  In other words, anyone who might use a network sniffer to intercept an e-mail message will be able to read it.  In addition, sometimes people send messages that contain confidential or perhaps emotional content.  Everyone, particularly children and teens, should keep in mind that it is a simple matter for e-mail messages to be forwarded and perhaps end up going to an unintended recipient.  The general rule of thumb is that you shouldn't send something in e-mail that would be personally embarrassing if made public.  (Two exceptions to e-mail being sent in clear text are when it is sent through the SSL protocol on the web and when the message is encrypted using an algorithm like PGP.)

While this subject of this class is concerned more with safety aspects of e-mail, it is probably also a good idea to review some of the information about etiquette and effective e-mail communication with children and teenagers.  (See "For more information..." above.)

Free E-mail

In order to send e-mail, you must have a user account with an organization that has a mail server.  Thus, many folks use e-mail from an account with their Internet Service Provider (like MindSpring or America Online), school (like Cary Academy), or business (like IBM or SAS Institute).  In the last few years, various Web sites have begun to provide e-mail accounts at no charge.  Yahoo!, Excite, Lycos, HotBot, and other large commercial sites enable you sign up for an account without verification of personal information. Why are these sites so generous with their resources?  Providing free accounts brings traffic to the sites which makes them more appealing to advertisers. These sites charge fees to allow vendors to display advertisements on their web pages. Some of these sites also sell consumer data (your personal info) to companies that will use it to advertise to target markets.  From a safety standpoint, these free e-mail accounts can be used by you to protect your work account or school account from unsolicited e-mail (see below for more on spam).   It gives you a level of anonymity that you may find reassuring.  On the other hand, others may take advantage of this anonymity to send harmful or threatening mail to others.  Depending on the nature of the mail, the account provider may or may not be cooperative in putting an end to it.  Only in extreme cases will the provider get involved in giving out the source of the mail.

Anonymous mail through the use of remailers

Besides the use of free accounts through commercial web sites, another way that folks often send anonymous mail is with the use of remailers.  These are mail sites that forward messages to the ultimate recipient without revealing the sender's true address.  The domain names for remailers often reflect their questionable nature: redneck.efga.org, dongco.hyperreal.art.pl, nym.alias.net.

Whenever you or your child receives a message of a questionable nature, you should check the domain name of the sender.  If the domain is not recognizable as a legitimate Internet entity or business, you may be looking at e-mail sent through a resender.  Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about this other than possible apply a spam filter (see below).  Similarly, you should instruct your child to not use remailers.

Spam

"Spamming is the scourge of electronic-mail and newsgroups on the Internet. It can seriously interfere with the operation of public services, to say nothing of the effect it may have on any individual's e-mail mail system. ... Spammers are, in effect, taking resources away from users and service suppliers without compensation and without authorization."    Vint Cerf, Senior Vice President, MCI

Spam is the sending of unsolicited e-mail to a large number of accounts.  It is usually used for advertising although it is also used for political causes or just to create a nuisance.  Many spammers advertise pornographic sites.

Spammers get their e-mail addresses from many sources including newsgroup postings, web pages that contain e-mail addresses, and web sites which require registration.   Spam can also be sent somewhat blindly to various e-mail address.  Spam is similar to junk mail that you get at home except it arrives, in essence, with postage due.  Those who pay for Internet accounts essentially foot the bill for the spread of spam while those who send it pay less than a fraction of a cent for each message.  (The term spam, by the way, is of somewhat unknown origin but is generally believed to come from a Monty Python comedy sketch in which the word "spam" is repeated over and over.)

There are several ways in which folks have tried to filter out spam.  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and businesses can prevent e-mail from entering their networks by blocking known spammers using a firewall.   Another approach is the parental controls configuration provided by America Online and other ISPs which only allow mail from a list of intended recipients.  Some of the blocking and filtering programs also have e-mail components.

Many spam messages add official-sounding disclaimers at the bottom that say something like "If you do not wish to receive unsolicited mail in the future, just reply to this address with the word 'Unsubscribe' in the body of the message."  While this may sound like it will accomplish removing the e-mail address, it will more likely confirm to the spammer that he has a valid e-mail address in his list and encourage more of the same in the future.

E-mail precautions

• Assume that any e-mail you send could be intercepted or otherwise read by an unintended recipient.  Remind your child to write any messages with this in mind.

• Don't automatically assume that e-mail you receive originated with the person listed in the "From:" field.  Young people should be taught to be appropriately skeptical of e-mail.

• Children shouldn't submit their e-mail address to anyone unless they know how it will be used.  Also, they shouldn't post it to web pages since it may in up on a spammer's list of addresses.

Last updated:  May 12, 2000