The essence of this paper is the message that Internet access for children is risky. Three brief cases are provided to illustrate the kinds of risks that exist for unwary children, and then the focus of the text turns to some solutions provided by Internet service providers (ISPs), and America Online (AOL) specifically, for blocking access to inappropriate Web sites or materials. The real answer, of course, which the author does point out along the way, is to educate users, especially parents and children, about these risks.

The paper has two fairly serious flaws. First, there are many grammatical errors, in which words are used incorrectly, or sentences are constructed awkwardly. This is very distracting, and the paper should have been edited more thoroughly before being published. Second, the paper is rather shallow, providing a conversational-level treatment of the topic, with no real insight into the problem. This is an important topic, and it deserves a better treatment.