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The Negative Impact of the Internet and Its Solutions
By Ru Guangrong, Chinese Information Center for Defense Science and Technology The Chinese Defense Science and Technology Information Monthly Issue 121, 5th Issue of 1998

The advent of the Internet has been one of the most exciting major events in the second half of the 20th century. The ancient dream of “a scholar knows all things happening in the world without venturing outdoors” has finally become a reality. Since 1993, the Internet started to take off. At present, the Internet has spread to more than 180 countries and regions, connecting more than 600,000 domestic networks of various types, hooking up more than 20 million computers available to 120 million users (2% of the entire global population). Within the Internet are the information treasures shared by all human civilizations. The reason why the Internet seems all-powerful is because it has two characteristics no other mechanisms possess: first, the Internet contains the biggest resource of information in the entire world; second, it enables people to obtain an interactive mechanism to instantly communicate with each other. Once connected with the Internet, everyone can enjoy the unparalleled richness of global information resources including textual, audio, graphic information. The information on the Internet is so rich that no one can tell what is really out there. Furthermore, the Internet information resources are constantly expanding at a great speed—one can only make a rough estimate. The types of information on the Internet are also wide-ranging, from scientific research, education, public policy, legal regulations to commerce, arts, entertainment etc. to include everything. For all those connected with the Internet, they can quickly put onto the Internet all they want announced or all they think others should know about. The Internet not only has an inexhaustible amount of information as vast as the ocean, but also has its interactive...